Mines secretary Francis Gudyanga has been accused of authorising suspicious payments totalling $4 million to an Israeli farming company called Pedstock between 2014 and 2015, the latest in a string of accusations directed at the top bureaucrat.
BY VENERANDA LANGA
Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe (MMCZ) deputy general manager (finance and administration) Richard Chingodza yesterday told the Daniel Shumba-led Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Mines that Gudyanga was running a one-man MMCZ board, claiming $30 000 in board fees, in violation of the MMCZ Act, which stipulates a minimum of six and maximum 10 board members for a meeting.
Chingodza said he had been suspended twice and later demoted to the position he previously held as finance and administration general manager after he questioned some of the transactions.
Gudyanga, Chingodza claimed, authorised a firm known as BIA to conduct an audit of MMCZ accounts, where it emerged that the only known person in the company was former Manicaland governor, Tinaye Chigudu, while the rest were Israeli nationals.
“The Auditor-General’s Office had not authorised the company to do the audit and they (auditors) took all information from our database, and when we demanded a letter of who authorised them to take information from our database from the ministry, nothing came and we are afraid MMCZ databases could have been tampered with,” he said.
“On September 25, 2014 we were ordered to pay $379 500 for training of members of the ZRP Minerals Unit. We were supposed to pay a West Indian company called Glamour, but we said we could not pay international companies because we were under sanctions and so we were told to invoice a farming company, Pedstock, to do the payments.
“I never knew the relationship between Glamour and Pedstock. In January 21, 2015 we paid another $575 000. Another payment of $575 000 was made on May 21, 2015, another $575 000 paid on August 13, 2015 and $575 000 was paid in September 2015.”
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Chingodza said besides paying Pedstock, Gudyanga also ordered them to pay $637 000 for ministry activities and rentals in 2015, resulting in MMCZ coffers running dry. He said at one time he was forced to pay $240 000 for the drafting costs of the Mineral Exploration Bill.
“We also queried the selling of our diamonds through a company he appointed, First Element, which caused losses to Treasury,” Chingodza said.
“The company was doing both cleaning and tendering of diamonds, and we were recording losses during the cleaning processes. First Element claimed they incurred $400 000 costs in setting up their cleaning facilities, but we queried the figure because a local company, Kenako, had costs that were a third lower than First Element.
“We refused to pay the $400 000 and that infuriated Gudyanga.”
Chingodza was suspended on May 24 on allegations of lobbying Parliament to cause the appointment of a substantive MMCZ board.
He told the committee he was suspended again on June 28 on new charges of poor corporate governance, but investigations by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission and the National Economic Conduct Inspectorate absolved him of any wrongdoing.
“We hear Gudyanga has approached the CID (Criminal Investigation Department) to have us questioned. He knows he will be in trouble and the only credible witness is me,” Chingodza said.
The committee chairperson assured Chingodza that after giving the damning oral evidence, Parliament would protect him from victimisation.
