THE Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) has condemned the posting of a statement on social media regarding its planned five-year de-dollarisation project saying the document was unlawfully leaked by one of its officials Thursday.
The Central Bank has since issued a statement saying the document that was still in the process of being drafted by a team of economists found itself in the public domain by accident.
The apex bank fingered a senior bank economist, Philton Makena as the culprit who leaked the information.
RBZ went on to say the document had not yet been inspected by the government which supervises its operations.
The document indicated that RBZ was planning on a roadmap to phase out the use of the United States dollar over five years.
“The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe wishes to advise the public that the document titled ‘De-dollarisation Road Map’ which has been circulating on social media was leaked by a senior Bank economist, Philton Makena, who had access to a document on the macro-economic policy measures to support the five-year de-dollarisation strategy which was being worked on by a team of economists in the Bank,” read the statement.
RBZ also urged the nation to disregard the document.
“The draft document should therefore be disregarded. The draft document was being worked on by the team of economists on a computer allocated to a chief economist in the bank, Paul Gilmour Mukoki. The bank has since established that Mukoki was not responsible for the leakage of the document.
“Makena’s conduct amounted to breach of the oath of secrecy by which all Bank employees are bound.
“Accordingly, the Bank has suspended him, with immediate effect and has commenced disciplinary proceedings against him. The Bank sincerely regrets the anxiety and inconvenience the leaked document may have caused,” read the statement.
