by Grace Chekai
The National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) Finance Manager Mthandazo Mlotshwa was suspended following allegations of misappropriation of funds amounting to US$23 million, Harare Post has learnt.
A contact within the NRZ has revealed that, Mlotshwa who was suspended on 14 September 2020, took advantage of his position to swindle money from the already stressed organisation.
“Mlotshwa took advantage of the transition by the organisation from manual accounting to SAP, which is the new NRZ accounting systems sometime in 2014.
“He did not capture the data from the source documents to the new system. Instead, he saved the data from the old system into his personal laptop computer.
“The anomalies were first discovered when the organisation was preparing for the 2018 financial statements,” said the contact.
Contact revealed that this is how they found out that there were two amounts that were saved from the general ledger that is, US$197 000 and US$197 001, which later prompted an investigation into the matter.
The contact said further evidence of funds misappropriation came to light when Blue Ribbon indicated that it wanted to make a payment of US$60 000 and the system showed that no account had been opened for the company.
The contact revealed that the US$23 million covers debt from freight and properties, with about US$18 million attributable to freight.
He further revealed that there are further allegations levelled against Mlotshwa, which include procurement of vehicles for top management without going to tender, and also procurement fraud during the past five years.
Contact revealed that Mlotshwa was in the process of building himself a double storey house in Hillside, Bulawayo and it is suspected that he could be using the looted funds for the construction work.
The exposure and arrest of big wigs is the main goal of the New Dispensation. President Emmerson Mnangagwa said that no stone will be left unturned when it comes to prosecution of people who are corrupt at the expense of ordinary citizens. His goal is to make everyone enjoy the national cake.
