MUTARE – The Mutare City council has been fleeced of more than $2 million by cashiers through a sophisticated syndicate involving senior employees from the finance department.
The Mutare City Town Clerk Joshua Maligwa on Friday confirmed of the massive fraud and seven employees attached to the finance department have since been suspended.
The workers Moreblessing Dhliwayo, Hazvineyi Magobeya, Lovemore Murambwa, Duncan Nehara, Abigal Makweche and Tsitsi Katombo were suspended on Wednesday without salary and benefits.
Investigations by The Zim Morning Post have revealed that external auditors hired by the local authority unearthed the scam that involved dubious transactions amounting to millions of dollars.
So far the auditors have unearthed a total of $2million and the
figure is likely going to rise, as cahiers raised fictitious accounts where money from clients was being paid into, prejudicing council of millions of dollars .
Said Maligwa:
“This rot has been going on for a long time. Council has
been prejudiced of millions of dollars for a long time now. There will be no sacred cows as we are working around the clock to weed out corruption and financial leakages.”
Maligwa who has been working hard in fighting corruption at Mutare City council that has reached alarming levels said heads are set to roll as the auditors are currently doing an audit of the council’s financial books.
He said 90 percent of council employees were corrupt.
“About 90 percent of the 1 300 people at council are involved in shady deals. We are having external auditors who are working with our internal auditors. There are so many heads, which are going to be chopped. We will be taking action,” he said.
Lately local government authorities including town councils have been hard hit by rampant corruption.
