Chitungwiza Municipality Quantity Surveyor Tendai Mandehlahari, who cheated his employer into paying a company $1.1 million in 2021 after falsely claiming to have rented a car to the Ministry of Works, has been fined US$300.
Mandhilare was found guilty of fraud and corrupt use of a forged document, when he appeared before Harare magistrate Ms Verisi Chakanyoka.
The sentence was suspended for ten months on the condition that he commits a similar crime in the next five years.
The complainant was Mr. Gibson Nemosiso, Secretary of Chitungwiza Municipality.
Mandehlahari, from Zingiza 3, works in the Roads Section of the Works Department.
His duties include, among other things, preparing bills of quantities and preparing patents for grants under the Methods Department.
The Prosecutor, Mr. Ephraim Zinyando, established that sometime in May 2021, the Chitungwiza Municipality sought to undertake road rehabilitation under the first and second phase of the Emergency Road Rehabilitation Program funded by a grant from the Zimbabwe National Roads Department.
The project focused on the rehabilitation of Mirissa and Jura roads in Chitungwiza. The local authority hired two tipper trucks from Ripcare Investments (Pvt) Ltd to transport gravel to the construction sites and payments were processed in five-day cycles as the works were completed.
The vehicles AFJ 1301 and AFJ 3375 began operation on 7 May 2021 and the Chitungwiza Municipality assigned its public servants to perform time-keeping duties so that the council could track the time the rental vehicles were being used.
For the first week, the use of both vehicles for their intended purpose was recorded as indicated on the valid time sheets provided by the designated timekeepers.
The time sheets formed the basis of payment to Ripcare Investments Pvt Ltd, as they confirmed the contractor’s performance.
The court heard that due to non-payment, Sam Bee Logistics towed the AFJ 1301 vehicle which had been subcontracted to Ripcare Investments Pvt Ltd after 10 days of work.
Investigations revealed that during the period the vehicles were rented, the Chitungwiza Municipality appointed Generals Nyasha Chiromiko, Gift Nyakambo and Method Mutabeni to carry out time-keeping duties.
They produced log sheets and sent them to Mandihlare for further processing.
As part of his duties, Mandihlare was supposed to prepare daily tipper timesheets using public hands log sheets to ensure that the AFJ 1301 tipper truck actually provided service to the Chitungwiza Municipality.
However, Mandihlare ignored the public hands log papers by preparing timesheets for the hired dumper for daily plant returns claiming that the AFJ 1301 provided service to the Chitungwiza Municipality, but that was not true.
Mandihlare misled his superiors by deliberately falsely reporting that the vehicle AFJ 1301 was providing service from 17 May 2021 to 31 June 2021 to Chitungwiza Municipality, yet he knew full well that the vehicle was not providing any service as it had been withdrawn by them. friends.
The AFJ 1301 daily factory return charter flip sheets were then submitted to the CFO for payment and payments were made through a series of transactions totaling $1,190,800.
The council suffered a prejudice of $1,190,800 and nothing was recovered. Announce
