THE National Social Security Authority (NSSA) lost $16 million to a housing project which was improperly awarded a tender, a court heard on Monday.

NSSA chief property investment officer Kurauone Ndakashaa Francis Chihota, 46, was not asked to plead to a charge of criminal abuse of office for allegedly recommending to the board that the Housing Africa Cooperation (HAC) be awarded a tender to build 8,000 housing units at a cost of US$16 million.

Harare magistrate Milton Serima heard that HAC is a Mauritius-registered company owned by former President Robert Mugabe’s son-in-law Adam Molai, Steven Duggan and Alec Nyatanga.

Ropafadzo Botsch, presenting the prosecution case, said in May last year, Molai, Duggan and Nyatanga met then NSSA chairman Robin Vela with a proposal to build thousands of housing units which the pension fund had committed itself to build back in 2016.

Vela submitted the proposal for consideration and processing.

The proposal, says the prosecution, landed on Chihota’s desk who failed to perform due diligence on the origin and status of HAC before making recommendations to the board.

To correct the foreign ownership after winning the contract, if is further alleged, Molai, Duggan and Nyatanga registered a new company Housing Cooperation Zimbabwe (HCZ) in which all three men were listed as directors.

The project was going to be implemented by HCZ, the original phase involving the construction of 250 units at a purchase price of $38,000 and an offtake deposit of $16 million which was to be paid by NSSA.

Botsch alleged Vela convinced the board the agreement was not subject to approval by the then State Procurement Board, hence the project did not go to tender.

NSAA then made the payment and Molai, who was the signatory to the Ecobank account where the money was deposited, then made various transfers to companies and personal bank accounts which had nothing to do with the project.

Only 53 houses were constructed instead of 250.

When NSSA made a follow up, the company was told that an additional $9 million was required to finish the job, it is alleged.

NSSA decided HCZ had no capacity to deliver and a report was made to the police.

Chihota, the first to be charge relating to the case, was released on $1,000 bail by Serima with stringent conditions, including the surrender of his passport and reporting to the police twice weekly.