Outspoken Zimbabwean Deputy Finance Minister Terence Mukupe has reportedly revealed that government officials are using their personal email accounts to send work-related emails, thereby increasing chances of fraud, maladministration and corruption.
According to NewsDay, Mukupe has criticised this, saying this was one of the reason that the country’s tax collecting body and several other government ministries were immersed in corruption.
At least two information technology experts also said that using personal email accounts placed the government at risk of litigations, fraud and loss of important government data.
According to the state-owned Herald newspaper, Zimbabwe was the most susceptible country to hackers, as every ministry in the country was using private emails to communicate and pass government information.
In its editorial, the paper called for the government to act swiftly against this, warning that the country risked important state information falling into the wrong hands.
An unidentified government official said that the country’s official email accounts were dysfunctional, and that this made communication difficult.
But, according to NewsDay, the southern African country's Information Communication Technology and Cyber Security Minister Supa Mandiwanzira said the "government is rectifying the problem".
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