HARARE – Jailed former Zimbabwe National Road Administration (Zinara) boss Moses Juma faced fresh corruption allegations when he appeared before a Harare court on Wednesday.
Juma is accused of leaning on the Gutu council to engage a contractor for road rehabilitation without following tender procedures.
He is charged alongside his predecessor as CEO, Frank Chitukutuku, who is already on remand.
Harare magistrate Stanford Mabanje heard that from January 2009 to May 31, 2016, Juma acting in connivance with Chitukutuku influenced the awarding of a contract worth US$20 million to Fremus Enterprises (Pvt) Ltd for road repairs without following procedures.
Fremus Enterprise is owned by Freddy and Masline Chimbari.
The court heard that the company was into buying and selling imported products.
“The accused at the material was the technical director for southern region for Zinara, and had the duty to check and monitor the funds disbursed to road authorities around Zimbabwe,” according to the National Prosecution Authority.
“During the period extending from January 2011 to May 31, 2014, Juma and Chitukutuku hatched a plan to defraud Zinara millions of United States dollars through special road rehabilitation projects. In order to achieve their plan, they handpicked rural district councils to benefit from the special fund project and Gutu Rural District Council was amongst the rural district council selected by the accused persons.”
It is alleged that the duo corruptly influenced the awarding of a contract for the removal of soil on a 30km stretch of road, gravelling of 30km of road, installation of drainage structures, compactions, repair of small bridges and roads construction in medium density suburbs around Gutu to Fremus Enterprise without going to tender and the contract had no contract price.
The State alleges that on April 8, 2011, Alexander Mutembwa the CEO of Gutu Rural District Council called for a full council meeting in a bid to discuss the contract for rehabilitation of a 30km road in Gutu which was imposed by the duo.
Investigations established that the duo pressurised Gutu council to make a resolution to award the tender for the rehabilitation of roads in retrospect when the contract was already in place and signed.
The court heard that a day before the full council meeting, the duo phoned Mutembwa emphasising that the contract was awarded to Fremus Enterprise and they threatened to terminate the project and move it to Buhera Rural District Council if Gutu RDC insisted on retendering the contract.
It is alleged that on May 4, 2011, a special council meeting was coerced into agreeing that Fremus Enterprise should continue with the project for the rehabilitation of 30km road since they had already brought equipment on the site.
Fremus Enterprise would raise interim payments certificates and engineer Abel Chivasa would sign the interim payments certificates representing Gutu RDC and Mutembwa would countersign the certificates. Fremus would take the signed certificates to Zinara for their payments of work done.
Prosecutors say it was established that after Fremus submitted the certificates, Juma and Chitukutuku immediately authorised the money to be paid to Fremus’ CBZ bank account.
Zinara allegedly paid a total of US$1,422,846.61 to Fremus Enterprise.
It is alleged that on May 18, 2013, Chimbari made a cash deposit of US$15,000 into Chitukutuku personal CBZ account.
Dorcas Bere, the secretary of Fremus Enterprise and sister to Masline Chimbari, allegedly made other payments to Chitukutuku.
Juma is serving a two-year jail term after he was convicted of criminal abuse of duty as a public officer in 2018 after he allegedly awarded a consultancy contract without going to tender. He was out on bail after appealing against his conviction and sentence, but was ordered to start his sentence by a judge after losing his appeal two weeks ago.
Juma, who was not asked to plead, will be back in court on June 29 when he intends to challenge his placement on remand.
