The Sunday Mail
Comm John Makamure
Corruption Watch
THE Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) has since the beginning of the this year received 113 reports of suspected corruption in public and private sectors, and is actively investigating these cases in order to speedily bring the culprits to book.
Investigations have been buoyed by the recent addition of nine investigators to the team, bringing the total number of investigators to 77.
Cumulatively, the number of cases that the Commission is handling stands at 784. Seventy-four of these are high-profile cases. The total number of dockets completed and pending at the courts stands at 51. These statistics demonstrate a great deal of work being undertaken as the Commission spearheads the anti-corruption drive.
The huge number of cases being investigated requires that we further beef up the investigations unit. There is no doubt that the current team of officers is over-stretched, thereby partly explaining why some of the investigations are taking too long to be concluded. We are pleased that the political leadership is fully alive to the issue, and has promised to continue availing the necessary resources in order to arrive at the requisite number of staff members who can manage the demanding task at hand.
The investigations are being complemented by systems and compliance reviews of public entities in order to strengthen corporate governance and internal control systems. The reviews are in line with one of our functions “to make recommendations to Government and other persons on measures to enhance integrity and accountability, and prevent improper conduct in the public and private sectors”.
So far systems and compliance reviews have been undertaken at the following institutions and programmes: recruitment of nurses, Cyclone Idai, Natpharm Pvt Limited, Zimbabwe School Examinations Council, Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa), and Presidential and National Scholarships.
Traditionally, the recruitment of nurses was done using the manual system, which was open to gross abuse. This fuelled corruption.
ZACC then recommended migration to an electronic system, which is now being implemented at Chitungwiza Hospital, Mpilo Hospital, United Bulawayo Hospital (UBH), Parirenyatwa Hospital and Sally Mugabe Hospital (formerly Harare Central Hospital). The system will cascade to other schools of nursing in due course.
Compliance spot checks were carried out at Natpharm (Pvt) Ltd, including regional stores, hospitals and clinics which are recipients of medical supplies. This included checking the distribution channel from Natpharm to the end user.
The ZACC team visited Natpharm headquarters, Mutare regional store, Nyanga, Bindura, Concession, Howard, Parirenyatwa and Chitungwiza hospitals. Several anomalies in the distribution system were identified, and are being brought to the attention of relevant authorities. Suspected corrupt practices that were unearthed during the systems review are being actively investigated.
The systems and compliance checks at Zinwa resulted in the Authority being assisted to develop an anti-fraud and anti-corruption policy. Many other entities will be assisted to put in place such policies. We strongly believe that in future any suppliers to Government must have an operational anti-corruption policy. This must be a prerequisite for one to be awarded a Government tender.
ZACC carried out a systems review on the recruitment and selection of students for national scholarships following a public outcry that the system and procedures lacked transparency. The review resulted in the arrest of two senior officials for suspected fraud. The matter is pending before the courts.
I earlier spoke about high-profile corruption cases that are at various stages of trial within the criminal justice system. I will remind readers of some of these cases since they are now on public record.
Former Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo has a couple of cases before the courts. In one of them he is accused of contravening section 4(a) of the Prevention of Corruption Act by using his position to corruptly allocate stands to illegal settlers at Whitecliff Farm well knowing that the owner of the farm had title to the same land. The monies involved amount to ZW$200 million.
Another high-profile case I should mention is that of the State vs Frank Chitukutuku and three others. The former Zinara chief executive officer is accused of acting in connivance with his accomplices to misappropriate Zinara funds by creating a fictious project of rehabilitating Illitshe Road in Umguza Rural District Council and made several payments to a contractor handpicked by himself for work not done.
The monies involved amount to US$3,4 million. The matter was referred to the High Court following an application by one of the accused persons challenging jurisdiction of the trial court.
Then we have the highly publicised State vs Prisca Mupfumira case. Mupfumira is accused of unprocedurally and unlawfully instructing a finance director in the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare to pay air tickets and accommodation for her three aides to attend a wedding ceremony for her daughter in South Africa. The accused faces two counts of criminal abuse of duty and three counts of money laundering. The trial date has been set for April 20 2020.
Cases involving former ministers Jonathan Moyo, Walter Mzembi, Godfrey Gandawa, Elton Mangoma, Walter Chidhakwa and former Vice President Phelekezela Mphoko are the other high-profile corruption cases at different stages of trial.
It is also important to point out that parallel financial investigations are being carried out on some of the accused in order to recover assets financed from ill-gotten wealth.
In local authorities, there are several corrupt cases before the courts. One of them involves the State vs Tendai Michael Mahachi, who is accused of awarding a tender for the reconstruction of Airport Road to Augur Investments, a company that was not registered at the time of award.
The company failed to deliver. The value of the case is US$80 million. The matter was referred to March 18 2020 for set-down. Another one involving City of Harare is State vs Simon Muserere, who is accused of awarding a tender for the rehabilitation of Highlands Sewerage Works to a company owned by his in-laws without disclosing his interest to his principals, City of Harare. The value involved is US$1,2 million.
ZACC does not only target the public sector in its work. We also have cases before the courts involving the private sector. For example, we have State vs Pious Manamike & others. The accused hatched a plan to defraud Cotton Company of Zimbabwe of US$2 212 613 37 and went on to sign a memorandum of agreement with Cotton Pro Company (Pvt) Ltd to supply 8 000 tonnes of cotton lint on a 90-day credit facility. This was against SI 150/2008 of the Exchange Control Act which prohibits selling of lint to companies outside the pre-financing facility. The value involved is US$2,2 million.
Another one is that of State vs Catherine Katsande, who worked for Petrolzim Line (Pvt) Ltd and accused of paying US$156 435 50 for the purchase of plain tank gauge kit and transmitter to Kaltrade (Pvt) Ltd knowing the company had no capacity to deliver. Nothing has been delivered to date thereby prejudicing Petrolzim line of US$2 million.
The Commission is currently seized with more investigations in key areas such as agriculture, fuel distribution, mining, health services delivery and land ownership. The culprits will soon be brought to book.
Commissioner John Makamure is the ZACC spokesperson and chairs the committee on prevention, public education and corporate governance.
[email protected]. ZACC toll-fee line: 08010101; Landline: + 263 242 369602/5/8
