HARARE – A Zimbabwe National Roads Administration (ZINARA) licensing officer has been slapped with a three-year jail term after being convicted of 258 counts of criminal abuse of office charges.
Patricia Chikorwe, 47, stationed at the Harare Exhibition Park Branch, appeared at the Harare Magistrates’ Court facing the corruption charges.
According to a statement by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), Chikorwe was in the habit of corruptly manipulating the vehicle licensing system by distorting expiration dates and arrears owed by motorists.
“On 258 occasions, the accused person unlawfully used her position and access to an error correction facility on the licensing system and altered licensing dates for certain vehicles,” said the NPA.
NPA added that Chikorwe was fraudulently removing arrears and penalties, thereby misleading other ZINARA licensing officers to act on the incorrect information on the system to license the said vehicles.
Through her actions, Chikorwe prejudiced ZINARA of US$168,458 in potential revenue.
The crime came to light in 2018 after the roads administrator noticed that certain vehicles had their arrears and penalties cleared without any supporting information.
In the previous year, 14 ZINARA employees were arrested by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) for fraud involving US$9.8 million after they created fake tap cards, which they swiped for motorists at the Shurugwi tollgate.
