$700 000 Finance ministry fraud saga: 6 more apply for bail

via $700 000 Finance ministry fraud saga: 6 more apply for bail – NewsDay Zimbabwe March 17, 2015 by Charles Laiton

Eight of the 14 suspected fraudsters accused of swindling the Finance ministry of over $700 000 have so far been granted bail, while the remaining six are still battling to challenge their detention with the latest being two Harare men whose application is set to be heard before High Court judge Justice Chinembiri Bhunu today.

Christopher Kumisai and Felix Rimaunga, who are not government employees, filed their application for bail at the High Court on Friday last week, but their matter could not be heard because the State was yet to file its response.

Through their lawyer Tungamirai Chakurira, who is instructing Advocate Lewis Uriri, the pair argued that the magistrate who denied them bail misdirected himself in that he failed to apply the law equally by denying them bail while the ministry’s employees facing the same offence were granted $1 000 bail each.

Kumisai and Rimaunga are accused of having acted in cahoots with Finance ministry employees to defraud the government of
$729 345.

Allegations against the two are that sometime in December last year, while acting in connivance with government employees, they tendered fake invoices to the Accountant-General’s Office for payment.

The State alleges that they submitted names of non-existent firms in the name of Nico Orgo (Pvt) Limited and Pioneer Hibred (Pvt) Limited through which payment was later sought for jobs they purported to have done.

However, the alleged offence came to light on January 15 this year when the Agriculture ministry, which had requested the Finance ministry to release funds to Reapers (Pvt) Limited, Zimbabwe Fertiliser Company and Windmill (Pvt) Limited, was informed there was insufficient cash to pay them as the money had already been paid out to the suspects’ dubious firms.