Online Reporter
Fidelis Munyoro
High Court Judge Justice Pisirayi Kwenda has ruled that the use of forged certificates constitutes fraud in the case of business partners Moses Mpofu and Mike Chimombe who are accused of defrauding the Government’s flagship Presidential Goats Scheme.
In his judgment the judge, says after the accused raised their defences denying the allegations against them, it is upon the prosecution to prove the essential elememts that constitute the crime facing the duo.
The use of forged certificates accompanied with requisite knowledge constitutes fraud, Justice Kwenda said.
Both the Zimra and NSSA officials who testified on the mandatory documents, according to the judge were credible witnesses.
And the documents were part of the bidding documents.
The judge rules that Blackdeck, the company which win the tender was Zimra non-compliant which disqualified it from the lucrative bid
Blackdeck, which was previously registered with NSSA was at the time of the bid, inactive in its data base.
Both certificates were not authentic.
The NSSA certificates tendered in court belonged to a company known as Skywalk. There was evidence of tampering with the NSSA certificates making the company non-compliant.
The court continues dissecting evidence of all the State witnesses who were involved in the Blackdeck tender.
The witnesses, not shaken at all as they gave their evidence, noted that the capacity of Blackdeck to supply goats was not in dispute and that the company supplied less goats.
Their testimonies were not in dispute even under cross-examination.
At face value the certificates looked genuine but were not verified during the evaluation stages.
Given that the documents were not valid, the contract was a nullity under the circumstances and Garise’s testimony was not completely tested.
The court found that she was a credible witness though she did not carry out due diligence as a lawyer. Garise helped in the drafting of the contract.
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