VZCZCXRO0686
PP RUEHBZ RUEHDU RUEHJO RUEHMR RUEHRN
DE RUEHSB #0289 0961547
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 061547Z APR 09
FM AMEMBASSY HARARE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 4338
INFO RUCNSAD/SOUTHERN AF DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY COLLECTIVE
RUEHUJA/AMEMBASSY ABUJA 2265
RUEHAR/AMEMBASSY ACCRA 2766
RUEHDS/AMEMBASSY ADDIS ABABA 2888
RUEHBY/AMEMBASSY CANBERRA 2153
RUEHDK/AMEMBASSY DAKAR 2509
RUEHKM/AMEMBASSY KAMPALA 2936
RUEHNR/AMEMBASSY NAIROBI 5377
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 2055
RHEHAAA/NSC WASHDC
RHMFISS/JOINT STAFF WASHDC
RUEHC/DEPT OF LABOR WASHDC
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHDC
RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHDC
RUZEJAA/JAC MOLESWORTH RAF MOLESWORTH UK
RUZEHAA/CDR USEUCOM INTEL VAIHINGEN GE

UNCLAS HARARE 000289 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
AF/S FOR B. WALCH 
AF/EPS FOR ANN BREITER 
EEB/IFD/OMA FOR JULIA JACOBY 
NSC FOR SENIOR AFRICA DIRECTOR 
STATE PASS TO USAID FOR L.DOBBINS AND J. HARMON 
TREASURY FOR D. PETERS 
COMMERCE FOR ROBERT TELCHIN 
ADDIS ABABA FOR USAU 
ADDIS ABABA FOR ACSS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: EAID ECON PREL EFIN PGOV ZI
SUBJECT: IMPROVED BUDGET TRANSPARENCY IN ZIMBABWE 
 
REF: A. SECSTATE 28885 
     ¶B. HARARE 0260 
     ¶C. HARARE 232 
 
¶1. (U) The Government of Zimbabwe is a recipient of FY09 
foreign assistance, as defined in Ref A, under the Department 
of State Foreign Operations and Related Programs 
Appropriations Act (SFOAA).  Post therefore provides the 
following response to the questions contained in Ref A. 
 
¶2.  (U) The Government of Zimbabwe's budget is publicly 
available, and incomes and expenditures are included in the 
budget. 
 
¶3.  (SBU) The formation of an inclusive government in 
February, 2009 and the appointment of Tendai Biti of the 
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), which had been the 
opposition party, as Minister of Finance, paved the way for 
the introduction of a revised and considerably more realistic 
FY09 budget.  Soon after taking office, Biti introduced a 
cash budget (Ref B), i.e. expenditures match revenue, and he 
prohibited off-budget spending.  He also seized back 
traditional finance ministry powers from the Governor of the 
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, who had mismanaged public finance 
in the past years. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) A recent IMF mission to Zimbabwe concluded that the 
Government's income estimate for FY09 was overly optimistic 
(Ref C).  In light of the gaping lack of information on 
private sector activity and its capacity to rebound, we 
nevertheless believe that the budget broadly reflects actual 
government incomes and expenditures in this first year of 
economic recovery in Zimbabwe in over a decade, and that the 
budget is therefore in compliance with Section 7088(c) of the 
SFOAA. 
 
MCGEE