The Minister of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development, Anxious Masuka, has announced that the Presidential Goat Scheme will resume after a full reflection on necessary improvements, learning from the previous mistakes, reported The Herald.
According to Masuka, about 6,000 goats were distributed under the scheme. However, the programme came to a halt when the contracted suppliers failed to deliver the promised goats.
He said the programme was supposed to benefit 35,000 villages, including traditional chiefs, headmen, village heads and a possible 1,8 million homesteads.
Masuka made the remarks while responding to questions from Manicaland Senator, Irene Zindi (ZANU PF), who wanted to know what became of the Presidential Goat Scheme. Said Masuka:
When the programme was mooted, we wanted to give the goats to chiefs, headmen and village heads.
The Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development had awarded a contract to Blackdeck Private Limited, a company owned by Moses Mpofu (49), to supply the goats under the Presidential Goat Scheme.
However, the matter has now taken a concerning turn, as Mpofu and his business partner, Mike Chimombe (43), have been arrested and charged with fraud.
The charges are related to the alleged irregular manner in which the duo secured the tender to supply the goats for the scheme.
It is alleged that the accused persons forged a ZIMRA Tax clearance certificate and an NSSA compliance certificate in the name of Blackdeck Private Limited and attached them in 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 ZWL$901 294 200 and ZWL$698 705 800 on 21 April 2022 and 28 June 2022 respectively into their bank account.
The total amount was ZWL$1.6 billion and was equivalent to US$7 712 197.
Chimombe and Mpofu allegedly lied to the Ministry that they had mobilised 32 500 goats across the provinces, when in fact, they only had 3,713 goats in their holding sites.
The duo 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.
The Ministry cancelled the contract on 29 August 2022.
More: Pindula News