adminZvikomborero Parafini
PREMIER Service Holding Company CEO Dr Farai Muchena, and three senior executives, are being implicated in a gold scam involving over US$700 000.
Muchena together with Victor Chaipa, (49), Cosmas Mukwesha (50) and Polite Mugwagwa (41) appeared in court yesterday.
They appeared before Harare regional magistrate Stanford Mambanje accused of misappropriating money which was meant for drug purchases after the PSMAS board had resolved to invest in gold buying to raise funds.
Chaipa is the Premier Service Holding Company strategy performance executive, Mukwesha is the group secretary and Mugwagwa the performance manager.
Allegations are that in 2020, the PSMAS board, with the objective of raising foreign currency for the procurement of drugs and medical equipment, resolved that management would venture into gold buying and selling.
It was further resolved that staff members from its Procurement department were to act as buyers and agents for buying the gold on behalf of the Society.
The board also resolved to pursue other investment projects such as cannabis growing and Micro Finance.
The State is alleging that Muchena sent a memo to PSMAS requesting funding for the gold project.
The funding request amounted to US$237,794 with US$108,674 as pre-trading funding.
Muchena advised PSMAS about the formation of a company styled, Claydust, solely for the buying and selling of gold to Fidelity.
In response, PSMAS disposed of its Zimbabwe Bank (ZB) shares totalling to 65 9643, valued at US$38 000, solely for the funding of the gold project.
Thereafter, and with the intention of stealing money from PSMAS, the State alleges, Muchena, in connivance with his accomplices, diverted from the initially agreed position of using PSMAS’s procurement team in buying the gold on behalf of the Society.
Instead, they allegedly engaged 18 private agencies, unknown to the PSMAS, for gold buying.
Subsequently, from the period extending from 2019 to 2022, they received gold from five of the private agencies, which was then sold to Fidelity.
Muchena and his accomplices allegedly realised up to US$702 386, having misled Fidelity Printers that they needed hard cash for the purchase of drugs and pharmaceuticals.
The cash was converted for their own use.
PSMAS realised that the Society was not benefiting from the gold buying project as no drugs and pharmaceuticals were being procured.
PSMAS engaged external auditors who unearthed the alleged offence.
The matter is back in court today for bail application.
Online Reporter