Mpofu And Chimombe Bail Hearing Commences
The bail application by Moses Mpofu (49) and Mike Chimombe (43) commences this Thursday, June 27, at the Harare Magistrates.
During today’s court proceedings, the prosecution led oral evidence from the investigating officer. The bail hearing will resume tomorrow, Friday.
In a statement, the NPA said the accused persons forged a ZIMRA Tax clearance certificate and an NSSA compliance certificate in the name of Blackdeck Private Limited and attached them to a bidding document which they submitted to the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Water, Fisheries and Rural Development for a tender for the supply and delivery of goats for the Presidential Goat Pass-on Scheme.
Chimombe and Mpofu allegedly misrepresented that the company was in full compliance with ZIMRA and NSSA requirements.
However, investigations indicated that the QR code and the reference on the NSSA compliance certificate were issued to a different company.
It is further alleged that Blackdeck Private Limited was deregistered from the NSSA system in January 2016.
The NPA said further investigations established that Blackdeck Private Limited was not issued with a ZIMRA tax clearance certificate for the year 2021 and that the QR code on the forged tax clearance certificate belonged to a different company.
The Ministry transferred ZWL901 294 200 and ZWL698 705 800 on the 21st of April 2022 and the 29th of June 2022 respectively into their bank account.
The total amount was ZWL1.6 billion and was equivalent to USD7 712 197. Following delays in the delivery of the goats, the Ministry of Lands officials made several engagements with the accused persons.
The accused persons misrepresented that they had mobilized 32 500 goats across the provinces which were ready to be distributed to the beneficiaries.
However, a verification process revealed that the accused persons only had 3,713 goats in their holding sites.
The Ministry cancelled the contract on the 29th of August 2022, following the discovery.
Chimombe and Mpofu reportedly only supplied a total of 4 208 goats valued at US$331 445 and went on to convert US$7 380 751 to their personal use. Nothing was recovered.
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