HARARE
–
Zimbabwe
Media
Commission
(ZMC)
executive
secretary
Godwin
Phiri
Friday
appeared
in
court
charged
with
fraud
after
he
allegedly
misappropriated
fuel
worth
millions
of
dollars.
Phiri
appeared
before
Harare
magistrate
Marewanazvo
Gofa
jointly
charged
with
other
ZMC
officials
Tafadzwa
Chikwiti
an
accountant,
Revai
Madire
and
administrator
Mercy
Hondo.
They
are
facing
two
fraud
counts.
The
four
were
not
asked
to
plead
and
were
all
remanded
out
of
custody
on
US$600
bail
each.
They
will
be
back
in
court
on
April
28
for
routine
remand.
Appearing
for
the
State,
Lancelot
Mutsokoti
alleged
that
during
the
period
extending
from
May
2023
to
February
2024
and
on
different
occasions,
the
accused
acting
in
connivance
with
Petros
Mudhokwani,
still
at
large,
hatched
a
plan
to
steal
from
the
commission.
Pursuant
of
their
plan,
Mudhokwani
allegedly
raised
requisitions
for
the
purchase
of
fuel
from
Petrotrade,
and
Chikwiti
uploaded
the
requisition
on
an
online
procurement
platform
which
was
adopted
by
the
commission
known
as
the
System’s
Application
and
Products
(SAP).
“Secretary
approved
the
release
of
funds
for
the
purchase
of
the
coupons.
Tawanda
Hlomai
who
is
also
still
at
large,
collected
104,976
litres
of
fuel
from
Petrol
Trade
in
form
of
coupons.
and
four
issued
goods
received
vouchers
purporting
that
all
the
fuel
had
been
received
by
the
commission,
when
in
actual
fact,
only
45,120
litres
of
fuel
was
recorded.
“Though
the
misrepresentation,
the
accused
defrauded
the
commission
of
59,856
litres
of
fuel
and
the
complainant
suffered
a
prejudice
of
ZWL54,836,704,95
and
nothing
was
recovered,”
the
court
heard.
On
the
second
account,
the
group
also
used
the
same
method
to
defraud
their
employer
and
Phiri
approved
the
release
of
another
ZWL51
million
into
various
accounts
and
where
they
collected
their
proceeds
in
foreign
currency.
The
offence
came
to
light
when
an
audit
was
carried
out.