Former ZESA Boss Blew US$600 000 On Luxury Cars - Report
The former Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) Group Chief Executive officer Josh Chifamba spent over US$600 000 on top of the range vehicles for himself between 2011 and 2017, the Zimbabwe Morning Post reports.
This was when the troubled power utility was saddled with debts to local and international suppliers of close to US$1 billion.
According to a forensic audit done by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) the company bought cars for Chifamba every year between 2011 and 2017 against the company policy which stipulates that cars are bought after every five years for top managers.
Part of the forensic report seen by the Zim Morning Post reads:
We inspected the executive employment contract between ZESA Holdings (Private) Limited and Engineer Chifamba (Annexure E 3.1) and noted that he was entitled to a company vehicle with no threshold or purchase limit.
ZESA reportedly bought cars for junior managers which were above their deserved perks and contracts to buy their silence.
A ZESA insider who spoke to the Post had this to say:
The junior managers were involved in activities they did not know, they thought that the bosses were doing them favours while they were being initiated in the cult of corruption.
The cars bought for Chifamba between 2011 and 2017 are as follows: a 2011 Mercedes Benz S320 valued at US$209 000, Land Cruiser 2012 make (US$176 000), Mercedes GL 2016 (US$127 000) and a Toyota Fortuner in 2017 at the cost of US$66 000.
Chifamba was arrested in October 2018 alongside Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC) managing director Engineer Julian Chinembiri and his finance director Thokozani Dhliwayo.
They were arrested for criminal abuse of office following the awarding of a contract involving Zesa’s unit Zent and an Indian firm, PME, for the supply of transformers and other equipment valued at $35 million.
