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Prosper Dembedza Herald Correspondent
Harare Magistrate Mrs Marehwanazvo Gofa has granted US$200 bail to ZIMSTATS Director General Taguma Mahonde who is facing a plethora of criminal charges including obstructing the course of justice, fraud and corruption.
He was ordered to surrender his passport to the Clerk of Court and not to interfere with State witnesses.
He was also ordered to reside at his given address until the matter is finalised.
It is the State’s case that on June 24, 2019 Mahonde entered into a contract of employment with ZIMSTATS for the position of director-general.
The contract included among other things an educational allowance for himself and his children.
The court heard that on September 3, 2021 the board of directors held a meeting where the accused was in attendance and among the issues, discussed, were the review of the educational allowance of the director general.
It was resolved under resolution BR500321/16 that the education allowance for the director general be reviewed upwards to US$800 per child per term for a maximum of three children, translating to US$2400.
It is alleged that on September 3, 2021 the accused claimed for US$2400 for school fees. On the same day ZIMSTATS, acting upon the misrepresentation effected a payment voucher of ZWL$206,532 being school fees equivalent US$2400 00 converted at interbank rate of ZWL$6 05510; US$1 into the accused bank account.
On January 24, 2022 the accused person generated a memo in which he misrepresented that the school fees for his three children was US$2400.
On January 25, 2022 ZIMSTATS made eight payments to the tune ZWL270 775 000 being school fees equivalent to US$2400 for term 1 at interbank rate of ZWL$1 12: US$1.
He claimed the same figure on several occasions.
Investigations established that from September 2021 to January 2023 the accused had two school going children namely Isheanesu Mahonde and Jordan Mahonde attending Kirkman Primary School and Livingstone Learning Centre and Nursery School.
Investigations established that all the payments that were done by ZIMSTATS for Mahonde towards the education allowance were done into his personal account 9140005140306 using his vendor number E101467. The claims were not supported with school invoices.
The case was unearthed during an internal audit conducted by Claudius Matiza in his capacity as the Head of Internal Audit.
On April 20, in a bid to jeopardise and obstruct the investigations, Mahonde hatched a plan to suspend Matiza from ZIMSTATS.
Investigations further established that Mahonde had been calling Matiza on a daily basis threatening him to stop whistleblowing to ZACC and hand over the documents which implicate the accused person.
As a result of the misrepresentation by the accused, ZIMSTATS processed and paid school fees allowance for a three school going children of the accused person resulting in the organization suffering an actual prejudice of US$4 000 and US$826 was recovered.
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