a tripartite report - Unctad

ZIMBABWE
tariat of technocrats, who would form the basis of
decisions in terms of competition economics and
law that goes with dispensation of competition
justice. An alternative solution would be to limit
the appeal to one jurisdiction, either High Court
or Administrative Court and create a specialized
competition chamber within the preferred Court.
3.7 Other Enforcement Methods
3.7.1 Compliance Agreements
agreements, but Section 30 provides that the
Commission can at any time during the course of
its investigations negotiate the termination or dis-
ticompetitive
mergers or monopoly situations. The
relevant provisions of section 30 read as follows:
“(1) The Commission may at any time negotiate
with any person with a view to making an arrangement
which, in the Commission’s opinion, will –
(a) ensure the discontinuance of any restrictive
practice which exists or may come into existence;
or
(b) terminate, prevent or alter any merger or monopoly
situation which exists or may come into
existence; whether or not the Commission has
embarked on an investigation into the restrictive
practice, merger or monopoly situation concerned.
(2) Where the Commission has made an arrangement
after negotiations under subsection (1), it
may embody the arrangement in an order.
Pursuant to this provision, CTC has signed a Competition
Compliance Programme and Agreement
with Schweppes Zimbabwe Limited in May 2011,
and with Delta Beverages in August 2011.
3.8 Agency Resources, Caseload,
Priorities and Management
3.8.1 Agency Resources
CTC has a human resources base of 29 staff out
of which 16 are technical and 13 support staff.
There is the Director, Secretary of the Commis-
tion
division is led by Assistant Director Competi-
195
in total 7 staff are dedicated to competition. Tariff
division is led by Assistant Director Tariff together
with 4 economists; in total 5 staff are dedicated
to tariff.
Records at CTC show that most of the current competition
staff were relatively new to the Commission;
3 were hired in 2007 and 3 in 2011. The Assistant
Director competition was hired in 2008. The
only experienced competition expert is the Director
who has been with the Commission since 1999.
Among the operational staff, none has undergone
competition training at University; internally there
have not been any comprehensive training-inhouse
training of staff. At most members of staff
and Commissioners have attended short trainings
2-3 days abroad. In this area, the CTC should consider
mobilising resources and organized a tailor
made training aimed at addressing knowledge
and skills gaps for both the Commissioners and
According to the Director, there has been a high
turnover of staff at the CTC mainly attributed to
the economic turmoil the country has undergone
since early 2000s; adding that in 2007/2008, CTC
lost the entire competition division. Efforts to rebuild
the division have been fruitful as evidenced
by presence of the newly recruited staff; the challenge
remaining for the CTC is to ensure their retention.
According to observations made from information
collected at the CTC and its corroboration
from interviewed stakeholders; the members of
staff at CTC are paid salaries pegged on civil service
scales. CTC has attempted within its limited
bid to raise its staff’s remuneration; nonetheless,
the salaries remain generally low as compared to
those paid to staff of the sectoral regulators 197 . It
ary
scales of the regulators as their release is guid-
alternative sources that the consultant could not
independently verify, the average difference between
scales of CTC and regulators could be estimated
at 700 per cent.
comparing the salary scales at CTC and other
competition authorities in within the Tripartite i.e.
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