MUTARE – There has been dismissals and massive resignations at the Mutare City Council following an ongoing finance audit that has unearthed huge fraudulent financial transactions running into millions of dollars, the Zimbabwe Morning Post can exclusively reveal.
First to be sacked on Friday was Tinashe Nzounhenda from the finance department following the completion of a disciplinary hearing.
Following Nzounhenda’s verdict, three others resigned on Friday before their cases could be heard.
These are Moreblessing Dhliwayo, Tsitsi Katombo and Hazvineyi Magobeya all from the finance department.
Mutare City Town Clerk Joshua Maligwa confirmed of the latest developments saying the current dismissal and resignations were just a tip of an iceberg.
“A lot has been happening for all these years. We want to get to the bottom of all this and bring to book all those involved,” he said.
“We are on a mission to sweep the council of corrupt activities that were bringing the city on its knees,” Maligwa said.
The Mutare City council has been fleeced of more than
$2million by cashiers through sophisticated syndicates involving senior employees from the finance department.
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 dollars and the figure is likely to rise, as cashiers 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 had 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.
