RETIRED judge Justice Simbi Mubako has been nominated to chair a disciplinary committee that will next month preside over a $2,7 million suspected theft and fraud case involving suspended CMED managing director Davison Mhaka.
NDAMU SANDU CHIEF BUSINESS REPORTER
Mubako is a diplomat and constitutional law professor at Midlands State University.
Other members of the disciplinary committee include human resources expert Patrick Chingoka and labour lawyer Rodgers Matsikidze. The matter was initially scheduled to be heard yesterday, but was deferred to September 22 at the request of Mhaka’s lawyers Makiya and Partners.
Mhaka was suspended on August 22 to pave way for investigations into incompetence and fraud charges levelled against him after CMED allegedly lost $2,7 million in a botched fuel deal involving an indigenous company, First Oil.
Under the deal, First Oil was supposed to supply three million litres of diesel to CMED, but allegedly failed to honour its side of the bargain despite being paid.
Mhaka faces charges of “acts, conduct or misconduct inconsistent with the fulfilment of your express or implied conditions of your contract of employment in terms of Section 4 (a) of Statutory Instrument 15 of 2006”.
This stems from the fact that the CMED board had resolved that bulk fuel be purchased from a company which had the fuel inland, an order Mhaka defied. He is alleged to have acted in concert with First Oil to defraud CMED.
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Mhaka is charged with colluding with First Oil and “deliberately conducted a fraudulent and fake due diligence and defrauded the company of $2,7 million”. Mhaka faces charges of gross incompetence by awarding a tender to a company without a valid import licence and not on the list of suppliers approved by the State Procurement Board.
He is accused of awarding a tender to a company without first carrying out adequate due diligence “to confirm that First Oil had fuel or the actual capacity to fulfill the tender and purchase order”.
A board of inquiry chaired by former Attorney-General Sobusa Gula-Ndebele unearthed serious irregularities in the awarding of the tender as no due diligence had been done and that First Oil did not appear on the State Procurement Board approved list.
