Act on US$3m fuel scandal: AG told

Tendai Mugabe and Peter Matambanadzo Herald Reporters

CMED (Pvt) Ltd has written to the Attorney-General’s Office demanding speedy action on a docket sent by police for perusal with the aim of arresting and prosecuting executives from oil firms that failed to supply fuel after receiving $US3million payment.

CMED said in the letter that National Oil Infrastructure Company chief executive o_ cer Mr Wilfred Matukeni and his counterpart at Petrotrade Mr Tanaka Sikwila should be prosecuted for their part in the botched deal.

The parastatal also said Mr Alex Mahuni, who represented First Oil Company in the deal, should face the same fate.

Mr Matukeni and Mr Sikwila are being accused of misrepresenting to the parastatal that they were storing three million litres of diesel on behalf of First Oil at Msasa depot when they knew they did not have the commodity.

In a letter dated June 23, 2014addressed to the AG’s Office through Musunga and Associates, CMED said the case had been pending for long, although police completed their investigations and had since forwarded the docket to theAG’s office for perusal.

“The main concern raised by our client CMED is that the matter was reported in the year 2013 and to date the suspects have not been arrested and there is a strong possibility that the accused persons may abscond if they are not arrested and prosecuted immediately,” the lawyers said in the letter addressed to director of Public Prosecutions Mr Nelson Mutsonziwa.

Mr Mutsonziwa confirmed receipt of the letter and said chief law officer Mr Chris Mutangadura was handling the matter.

The lawyers said the fuel saga was a simple and clear case of fraud, which was not complicated and demanded fast tracking as it affected the nation at large because CMED was the sole supplier of fuel to Government.

“Accordingly, it is clear that First Oil Company and Alex Mahuni committed the crime of fraud in that they inten-tionally misrepresented to CMED that they would deliver the fuel on payment of the purchase price when in fact they knew they had no capacity to do that,” the lawyers said.

CMED is also appealing against a High Court judgement that exonerated NOIC from the deal.

This comes in the wake of incriminating evidence implicating Petrotrade in the fuel saga, despite efforts by Energy and Power Development secretary Mr Patson Mbiriri to absolve the company of any wrong doing.

Mr Mbiriri said in a statement that the three million litres of diesel were not delivered to CMED because First Oil had not paid Petrotrade.

He further stated that for some unknown reasons, First Oil paid the US$3 million for the fuel outside Zimbabwe to EBG Hong Kong Limited.

But correspondence in The Herald’s possession showed that First Oil deposited more than US$3 million in EBG Hong Kong’s account at the instruction of Petrotrade.

In a letter dated March 5 2013, Mr Sikwila wrote to CMED confirming that they had reserved three million litres of diesel for First Oil that would be released to CMED upon confirmation of payment.

In the same letter, he emphasised that the diesel would be delivered after the transfer of the money to Micro Petro-leum Limited, which is a sister company to EBG Hong Kong.

“We hereby confirm that we have reserved the above (3 million litres) vol¬ume of diesel on behalf of Globe Invest-ments/ORPSA and First Oil Company for onward release to CMED Private Limited upon full confirmation of payment,” reads part of Mr Sikwila’s letter.

“We also stress that the transfer to Micro Petroleum Limited, for the above product must be completed by no later than 1000 hours on the 5th of March in order for them to confirm, receive and ensure timeless payment to Petrotrade.”

Globe Investments/ORPSA is said to be related to EBG Hong Kong.

An invoice generated by Petrotrade on March 4 2013 showed that the com¬pany’s executives knew EBG Hong Kong which received the payment for the fuel.

The invoice confirmed the payment of US$3,09 million to Mirco Petroleum, a sister company to EBG Hong Kong, and the availability of the three million litres that was supposed to be supplied to CMED.

Before CMED Limited floated a tender for the supply of the fuel on March 1 2013, Mr Sikwila wrote to Micro Petroleum on February 28 confirming that they had reserved three million litres for First Oil.

It is not yet clear how EBG Hong Kong became involved in the transaction, especially after Petrotrade confirmed that the three million litres of fuel were at Msasa.

CMED chairperson Mr Goodwills Masimirembwa yesterday said they were still waiting for the fuel.

“We are happy with the statement from the secretary (Mr Mbiriri) that diesel is there at Noic,” he said. “We have already instructed our lawyers to demand the release of that diesel and we will deal with the issue of damages at a later stage.”

CMED paid US$3 million to First Oil, but the company which had won the tender by virtue of its low price of U$1,21 per litre of diesel, failed to deliver.