Online Reporter
Zvikomborero Parafini
Court Reporter
EXPERT Freight Private Limited’s accountant has been fingered in a fraud case involving ZIG130 000.
The suspect Bright Machawira was not asked to plead when he appeared before Harare magistrate Tapiwa Kuhudzai.
The complainant is the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority, represented by Samuel Munapo, its loss control officer.
The court heard that in 1991, the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority introduced its Automated System for Customer Data (ASCUDA) for the clearance of all imported and exported goods for taxes in both ZWL and Forex currencies.
The authority also introduced a separate business partner (BP) number for all approved ZIMRA agencies for their prepayment account.
To clearly separate and account for taxes in both currencies, Zimra introduced a separate business partner (BP) number to all approved ZIMRA agencies with respect to their prepayment account.
Procedurally, for all imported goods or services, an agent was mandated to calculate duty in respect to the goods imported and exported by a client and upon approval, the agent will deposit the said amount into ZIMRA’s account, which will automatically reflect in
the agent’s prepayment account.
In turn, the agent will then clear its client’s goods or services using information from its account.
On August 2 2024, Machawira hatched a plan to defraud Zimra, and on the same day, he allegedly connived with Robert Horomani, a ZIMRA accounting officer who has since appeared in court.
They made a misrepresentation to ZIMRA that Expert Freight (Pvt) Limited, registered under BP number G0200165265 had deposited ZIG130 799-00 into the ZIMRA BANC ABC account.
On that same day, Robert Horomani created a fictitious figure or amount of money amounting to ZIG130 799 to appear as if Machawira had deposited ZIG130 799-00 into ZIMRA BANCABC account number 10164883902011 under receipt number R60147.
Machawira went on to clear goods worth ZIG130 799-00.
As a result of his actions, Zimra cleared goods totalling to ZIG130 799 to its prejudice, and nothing was recovered.
