Zimra suspends 3 officers

by The Herald reveal that the trio were served with suspension letters on Thursday and Friday.

Among those who were suspended are Kudakwashe Mutasa (Supervisor Bonds), Lina Chipitiri and Silibaziso Mtetwa (both revenue officers).

Reliable sources within the parastatal said the trio were suspended as the organisation intensifies its zero tolerance to corruption. The development brings to eight the number of Zimra officers who have been chopped by the organisation at Beitbridge in a space of six months.

Late last year five other officers deployed to the commercial clearance section were sacked for facilitating imports of several commercial goods into the country using fake permits. It has since been established that bonds supervisor Mutasa facilitated the smuggling of clothing bales through Zimbabwe using forged documents indicating that the truck was transporting wheat from South Africa.

“It is unfortunate that she was not aware that the truck had been put under surveillance for sometime on suspicion of smuggling goods through Zimbabwe.

“The issue was discovered at Nyamapanda Border Post when the truck was about to leave for Mozambique, where it was discovered that Mutasa had handled the documentation at Beitbridge Border Post resulting in her suspension,” said one of the sources.

It is also alleged that on 26 May, Mtetwa who is a revenue officer connived with Munenzwa bus crew to facilitate the smuggling of an assortment of goods into the country. Mtetwa was supposed to check if passengers in the bus had complied with the necessary regulations including duty payments for their goods, but she authorised the bus to leave the border without conducting any searches.

She ran out of luck when the bus was intercepted by the Zimra anti-smuggling team at the exit gate. Goods worth US$8 000 were recovered from the bus and she was subsequently suspended.

Chipitiri is accused of releasing two vehicles which had been logged by the anti-smuggling squad without searching them. It is reported that she had been given the registration numbers of the vehicles and instructions not to release them until duty payments for the goods they were carrying had been made.

However, she went against the order and released the cars which were then intercepted at the exit gate.