Harare — ZIMTRADE, the country's official trade promotion organisation, has fired chief executive officer (CEO), Herbert Chakanyuka -- its fourth boss since it started operating in 1992 -- accusing him of misappropriating funds.

The allegation has been brought up against every incumbent and actually claimed the scalp of two of Chakanyuka's forerunners -- Morison Sifelani and Fred Chawasarira.

The organisation has also fired all of its former board chairpersons - Paddington Zhanda, Peter Muzariri and Florence Sigudu-Matambo -- under unclear circumstances, while other board members have also quit in a huff.

Chakanyuka, the former marketing executive of Tube and Pipe Industries, had taken over from Elizabeth Nerwande who resigned unexpectedly in January 2006 with less than two years in charge of the beleaguered quasi-government institution as political pressure from the ministry and an unfriendly board, which had come on a month earlier, looked set to squeeze her out.

Sources say Nerwande apparently had "seen it coming", as her predecessor Chawasarira, had been ejected the same way two years before. At the time she took over the reigns, Chawasarira's matter was still before an arbitrator.

Crispen Tsvarai has been thrust into the hot seat in an acting capacity as the board, headed by Daniel Chigaru, the general manager of the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair, begins the hunt for a suitable replacement, who will also act as Zimbabwe's commissioner general for the 2010 World Expo.

The event, the world's largest trade exhibition taking place after every five years, will be held in Shanghai, China's largest commercial town, where some 70 million visitors are expected.

Chigaru was not available to confirm the alleged embezzlement and his board's fallout with Chakanyuka.

Since its official launch in 1992, ZimTrade has come to be identified more by its unending boardroom squabbles and odious political interference from the Ministry of Industry and International Trade, its parent ministry, than by its promotional activities.

The organisation's board is constituted of nine directors -- four are elected by the private sector with the rest, including the CEO and chairperson, appointed by the Industry and International Trade Minister from the private sector.

Typically, most appointees have almost always been made on political rather than professional grounds, which reduced the ZimTrade boardroom into a turf for political warfare.

Its operations have also been subject to excessive control by the Ministry, which still insists on approving all of ZimTrade's consultancy work and steering the National Export Strategy.

Sources say the axe fell on Chakanyuka after an audit report for the quasi-government institution's full year financial year for the period ending June 30 allegedly unearthed gross misappropriation and possible embezzlement of funds.

The charges include unsanctioned foreign trips and irregularities in funds approvals.

The trade promotion institution gets the bulk of its revenue from a 0,03 percent surcharge on imports and exports. Part of the revenue also comes from its subsidiary called Rooflick.

Launched as a joint venture between the government and the private sector with a mission to assist businesses in the country to develop and expand profitable international trade in goods and services, ZimTrade has, however, performed badly so far.

Since its formation, ZimTrade has only managed to develop a limited range of promotional activities, namely the export directory and the much-recent, Export Marketing Training Programme, adapted for small to medium-size enterprises.

Apart from merely facilitating local firms' participation in international trade fairs, more innovative firm-level interventions such as product development through packaging and branding, have been found to be more powerful determinants of market access. These technically fall under the ambit of a trade promotion institution.

Products consultations; joint marketing researches; bilateral export development schemes with strategic trading partners; advisory workshops; business seminars and many other trade enhancement initiatives also guarantee secure and predictable market access and enhance the global competitiveness of local exports on a more sustainable basis.

A lot of products could be developed from the International Trade centre's Market Access Tools such as the Trade Map, Market Access Map and the Investment Map.