USAID probes Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition’s Cashberts

via Bulawayo24 NEWS | USAID probes Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition’s Cashberts 10 January 2015

ALLEGATIONS of corruption at embattled Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition came into focus again this week after it emerged that USAID, a US government donor fund distribution channel, recently deployed an official to probe the organization.

USAID are the core funders of the civil society representative body which is accused of awarding its three top officials huge salaries amounting to US$ 16 000 per month.

Documents in the possession of NewZimbabwe.com show that the organization which has a staff compliment of 16 people has a monthly wage bill of US$34 000.

Director McDonald Lewanika, who at the centre of the graft investigations, is the highest paid pocketing $7, 000 per month while the lowest paid, a security guard, is at $ 300.

Insiders said it is these shocking salaries which the Dewa Mavhinga led board questioned last October before the human rights lawyer (Mavhinga) was forced to resign a month later.

Corruption in the organization was exposed by a 2013 audit report which was presented in October last year.

The audit report revealed that the secretariat had failed “to uphold the principles of good governance and protect the integrity of the institution”.

A strategic insider said the USAID, during the just ended festive holiday, sent an official from the US to investigate the allegations of graft.

“A black American was here during the Christmas holiday and met with the senior officials in the organization. The investigator asked us how the funds were being used, and raised a lot of questions on the salaries which senior officials were getting,” said the source.

“He also questioned the contract of Lewanika which expired on December 31 after it had emerged that he had connived with four board members and clandestinely renewed it.”

A full board met on 10 October 2014 and resolved that Lewanika’s five year contract which was ending on 31 December 2014 was not going to be renewed.

But, according to the source, “Lewanika met with four board members in Bulawayo on 19 December and clandestinely extended his contract by another six months. They also awarded him (Lewanika) a 40% salary increment of the US$4000 that Dewa Mavhinga had set before his resignation in November”.

NewZimbabwe.com sought a comment from Samukeliso Khumalo, the coalition’s acting chairperson, but she refused to entertain questions on the issue.

“I am sorry I cannot discuss internal organizational issues with the media. We can discuss politics surrounding other things not that. That is a Human Resources issue and it is too confidential,” she said.

Another insider claimed that Mavhinga wanted to weed out corruption and cultivate transparency and accountability in the organization when he proposed for a “drastic and reasonable” salary reduction.

The insider said before his forced resignation in November last year Mavhinga had chopped all the staffers’ salaries by almost half.