The appointment of current Grain Marketing Board (GMB) managing director Mr Rockie Mutenha is under spotlight amid indications that his assumption of duties at the parastatal was unprocedural.

His appointment is said to be allegedly influenced by the former Minister of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development Dr Joseph Made.

It’s an issue that exposes some of the underlying factors affecting the performance of parastatals.

The appointment of GMB managing director came under intense scrutiny which dragged Dr Made who appeared before the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement chaired by Cde Justice Mayor Wadyajena, accused of influencing the final decision that brought in Mr Mutenha ahead of two candidates who had scored higher points from the interviews held in search of the candidate for the post.

These inquiries were met with vehement denials by the former agriculture minister.

An earlier appearance before the same committee by the GMB deputy board chairperson Mr  Basilio Sandamu had indicated that the former minister had indeed influenced decisions at the parastatal with the evidence being rolled out before him, yet still he  maintained his position.

Further enquiries from committee member Honourable Temba Mliswa was met with thinly veiled defences from both the GMB members and the former minister.

The legislator questions the rationale used in hiring Mutenha who from presented evidence before the committee was third from the results of the interviews held at the parastatal behind Ms Millicent Mombeshora who came in as the second highest.

Thinly veiled defences by the GMB members and Dr Made crashed after some indication by one of the board members that indeed there was some measure of influence on Mr Mutenha’s appointment.

The anomalies in the appointment of this executive at the parastatal is a tip of the iceberg  of the graft which has affected the institution with revelations that the firm flouted auction rules and guidelines when it auctioned some of its properties in 2011.- state media