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.
