HARARE – Judith Musvosvi, the country director for the global humanitarian organisation Adventist Development & Relief Agency (ADRA), has fled Zimbabwe after a forensic audit uncovered her alleged involvement in a $1.4 million embezzlement scheme that threatens to collapse the organisation’s local operations.

The 65-year-old executive absconded days after her subordinate, ADRA finance director Fortune Goredema, was arrested on fraud charges.

According to church sources, Musvosvi travelled to South Africa by bus before continuing on to Eastern Europe. She told friends she was attending her niece’s wedding.

A senior Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) insider confirmed: “Powerful contacts within the church warned her of imminent arrest.”

The scandal unfolded after ADRA International, which runs relief programmes in over 120 countries, received an anonymous whistleblower report in July 2022. A forensic audit – conducted by the SDA’s General Conference Auditing Service and international firm Baker Tilly – uncovered:

– Goredema falsified accounting records to embezzle $1,209,387.76 designated for tax payments to ZIMRA.

– He diverted $160,437.57 meant for NSSA pensions.

– The finance director overpaid himself by $118,578.69 between 2023 and 2024.

Musvosvi, who has led ADRA Zimbabwe since 2013, was found complicit in the scheme. Auditors confirmed she authorised fraudulent transactions and personally received “undue payments and personal loans” violating ADRA’s financial policies.

The fraud has pushed ADRA Zimbabwe to the brink of dissolution over the massive tax hole and overdue periodic payments.

Pastor Zibusiso Ndlovu, the executive secretary of SDA North Zimbabwe Union which covers Harare, declined repeated requests for comment.

The mother-of-three’s husband, Jonathan Musvosvi, remains an active SDA pastor in Zimbabwe and no church disciplinary action has been announced.

Musvosvi’s relocation to Romania severely complicates prosecution, as Zimbabwe has no extradition treaty with the Eastern European nation. Interpol may be consulted, according to legal sources.

The scandal threatens critical ADRA programmes supporting food security and healthcare across Zimbabwe’s most vulnerable communities, including people living with HIV.

“This isn’t just theft – it’s a betrayal of the world’s poorest,” said a Harare-based aid coordinator familiar with ADRA’s operations.

ADRA Zimbabwe was previously targeted for takeover by controversial petroleum tycoon Kudakwashe Tagwirei. Musvosvi was allegedly not opposed to a greater role for the SDA “elder” in the organisation, but there was no consensus.

When Tagwirei did not succeed he went and formed his Bridging Gaps Foundation (BGF), but it lacks the reach and prestige of ADRA within the SDA community of nearly one million members in 2,523 churches, which he still craves.