SOME would like to call them innovative, others: unrepentant law beakers. But by and large and by whatever means, some Zimbabweans have shown their resourcefulness in defying government orders for them to survive. The latest are reports of the rampant emergence of corrupt Money Transfer Agencies (MTAs), registered or operating illegally.

In a joint swoop, the central bank and the Zimbabwe Republic Police last week announced that it had caught some officials of unregistered MTAs illegally trading in foreign exchange and thereby dampening efforts to cull parallel market trading.

Despite the feisty efforts to bring orderliness in the financial sector and rein in the illegal foreign exchange market, some sophisticated Zimbabweans continue to soldier on with their past "business" conduct of buying and selling hard currency on the streets.

For some, once it is clear that they have failed to register with the central bank, there was only but one route to continue operating - that is to deal illegally on foreign currency in Zimbabwe and abroad.

But even those that are registered continue to defy the law and buy and sell foreign currency outside the stipulated official rates - the RBZ's auction and "Diaspora" rates.

Documents in the possession of Standard Business show how some of the registered MTAs are defying the law to stay in "business".

They compile two separate reports, one for RBZ officers who make spot checks and these would show the "correct" transactions done at the stipulated exchange rates should the officers pounce.

The other reports, which were discovered during the joint police and RBZ swoop, are kept secretly by the companies for their own records and clearly show the huge rates they are offering to Zimbabweans outside the country, and even the locals with a bit of hard cash.

"It is all about speculative behaviour on the market. The moment we have deviant behaviour and characters on the market ... it makes it difficult for policy makers to achieve their goals," says David Mupamhadzi Trust Holdings' Group Economist.

Dealers blame the unrealistic official exchange rates for the mushrooming of the illicit trade in hard currency. They say since the July ban to receive foreign currency remitted through the "Homelink" facility in its original form, the Zimbabwe dollar has taken a hard knock on the parallel market.

"You have all the ingredients of a strong demand and strong supply. When the gap between the parallel exchange rate and the official exchange rate is big, the risk is worth taking. So it is the government's fault for allowing the gap to grow big," said John Robertson, a Harare-based independent economic commentator.

Major currencies are fetching a higher premium on the parallel market than at the weekly controlled foreign currency auctions, a Standard Business survey found.

According to other reports, the recent onslaught on private schools by the Ministry of Education that has made standards to decline and qualified staff to emigrate, is one of the causes of the flourishing parallel market.

The market is currently awash with properties whose previous owners are fleeing Zimbabwe because of the collapse of the education system and the general decay of the economy.

Those selling properties in the local currency are snapping up any available foreign exchange resulting in the Zimbabwe dollar losing out against the major currencies, said experts.

On the parallel market the American greenback was last week fetching as much as $7 500; the pound $11 000 while the rand traded at between $1 200 and $1 500.

This is against an auction rate for the US dollar, for example, of $5 599,91 and a "Diaspora" rate of $5 600.

"More people are trying to leave the country because of the attacks on schools. So they don't mind the price dealers attach to their hard currency," Robertson observed.