Government is investigating payments made by the scandal-ridden Zim Airways to foreign companies that eventually did not deliver any service to the state-funded airline, the Zim Morning Post has established.
Sources close to the development told this publication that a number of foreign companies were paid in advance for services that were never rendered.
“Government lost thousands of dollars as it paid via the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, for services that were never rendered since the airline failed to take off,” said the source.
Reliable sources told the Zim Morning Post that government is now investigating the inexplicable transactions which were made by Zim Airways.
Investigations have revealed that, so far, two foreign companies received money from the RBZ but never delivered services to Zim Airways.
Sources said the money could have been syphoned out of the country on the pretext that Zim Airways was paying for some services.
“The companies are Evers consulting and Gulf Insurance.
“Evers Consulting received $148 000 United States Dollars in four batches to offer manuals which they never delivered.
“Zim Airways had approached the consulting company to produce manuals for its new planes.”
Ever Consulting is a company domiciled in England and Wales and boasts on its website as specialists in the aviation industry and deals with AOC Start Up and Manual Writing, Airline start up and project management, NCC manuals, SPO manuals, Aircraft management among other services
Another company, Gulf Insurance, was paid $20 000 via RBZ for loss of license insurance, an insurance package for flying pilots while the airline was not yet operating.
Furthermore the company received an additional $157 000 for health insurance for an airline which was not operating.
Investigations show that Gulf Insurance has market positions in Kuwait , Jordan , Bahrain and Egypt.
The group has operations in Syria, Iraq , Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.