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Council director on ‘leave’ every week

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Recent investigations at the Municipality of Marondera by a government-appointed commission of inquiry have revealed that council finance director (FD) John Kachingwe does not report to work on Mondays.

BY JAIROS SAUNYAMA

Recent investigations at the Municipality of Marondera by a government-appointed commission of inquiry have revealed that council finance director (FD) John Kachingwe does not report to work on Mondays.

This paper is reliably informed that the four-member investigating team led by Midlands provincial development co-ordinator Abiot Marongwe asked councillors and other management officials why Kachingwe is always off each week.

Mayor Chengetai Murowa yesterday confirmed that the FD does not report to work on Mondays.

“When we got into office in 2018, we found out that the FD doesn’t work on Mondays. I even asked the former town clerk (Josiah Musuwo) on the issue, but could not get a satisfactory answer. If you go to council chambers on a Monday you won’t find him,” he said.

Currently, councillors reportedly want Kachingwe fired, accusing him of being absent from work most of the times as well as for authorising the recent steep hike in business licence fees that have left council and the business community at loggerheads.

The business community has since stopped paying the fees demanding council to revise the rates.

“The commission wanted to know why the finance director doesn’t come to work on Mondays. They said he is on leave every Monday and this means on top of his annual leave he has free 48 days,” one of the interviewees said.

Efforts to get a comment from acting town clerk Rinashe Nyamuzihwa were fruitless as he was said to be out of office.

The commission is currently compiling a report on its findings on Marondera council corruption and abuse of office allegations. The probe came after residents wrote a petition to the Local Government ministry, accusing the MDC-led council of corruption. One of the allegations is that they faked travelling to the late former President Robert Mugabe’s funeral for three days.

According to the petition, the MDC councillors did not travel to the funeral, but made the claim as a way of getting money from council in fuel and travelling allowances.