Zvishavane council ‘loses’ $100,000

Patrick Chitumba Midlands Bureau Chief
ZVISHAVANE Town Council allegedly lost more than $100,000 realised from beverage sales to a syndicate involving a bar manager and officials in the local authority’s finance department.

The council owns and operates two beer halls, Mandava and Kubatana Beer Gardens.

Confirming the suspected fraud case, Town secretary, Tinoda Mukutu, said information at hand indicated that council could have lost more than a $100,000 through altering of beer sales figures by its bar manager, Russell Mukaranda.

Police have since arrested Mukaranda.

Mukutu, however, said councillors had jumped the gun by prematurely reporting the matter without waiting for the audit report which he said was 95 percent complete.

“Auditors are in the middle of auditing beer halls accounts and have so far covered 95 percent of the work. I think they would be done by Friday,” he said.

Mukutu said management, councillors and their legal representative have been meeting over the past two days as they sought to build a strong case against the bar manager.

Sources within council said an internal auditor unearthed the scam which involves a well knit syndicate.

“The auditor discovered that sales figures from cashiers were being altered to make it look like the beer halls were making loses yet they were making profit,” said the source.

The sources said when Mukaranda got wind that his theft had been unearthed, he wrote a letter asking for forgiveness and begged council not to report the matter to the police.

Mukaranda, the source said, even requested to sell some of his houses in Mandava in order to reimburse council.

“At the moment all fingers are pointing at the bar manager and there is a possibility that he might implicate some managers in the finance department. That’s why management and councillors have been meeting for the past two days to map a way forward.

“Some want the matter reported to the police while others are of the view that the bar manager and his accomplices should pay back the money,” said the source.