THREE senior staffers at Eaglesvale High School in Harare, including the headmaster Naison Tirivavi, appeared at the Harare Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday charged with defrauding the institution of $873 840.
BY CHARLES LAITON
Tirivavi (60) is being charged alongside salaries officer Cheryl Botha (52) and bursar Charles Blessing Shokobishi (57).
The three were not asked to plead when they appeared before Harare magistrate Francis Mapfumo, who remanded them to October 30 this year on $1 000 bail each coupled with stringent reporting conditions.
It is the State’s case that sometime last year, the schools’ board members, who are the complainants in the matter, held an extraordinary general meeting to look into the financial report for the year.
The board members allegedly discovered discrepancies involving cash payments in lieu of leave days to non-teaching staff despite the board having given standing instructions to the suspects in the previous year that there should be no encashment of leave days.
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However, a forensic audit ordered by the school board established that Botha was allegedly paying herself unauthorised cash in lieu of leave.
The State alleges Botha would enter varying amounts of cash in lieu of leave on a number of employees on the payroll after which she would send the papers for authorisation by Tirivavi.
Once authorisation was obtained, Botha and Tirivari would then allegedly alter the payroll to have the cash in lieu of leave allocated back to Botha.
The State alleges, the net amount cumulatively transferred to Botha’s bank account as a result of inflated fraudulent payment of cash in lieu of leave and overstated bonuses amounted to $518 007.
In respect of Tirivari, the State alleges, he authorised his cash in lieu of leave in the sum of $135 377 during a period extending from the year 2011 to this year.
Tirivavi is also alleged to have received unapproved cash amounting to $13 366 being term allowance without the knowledge of the board, and as a result of his actions, the school suffered a total prejudice of $148 743.
The school bursar, Shokobishi, allegedly acting in connivance with Tirivavi, is said to have received $19 903 in lieu of 225 leave days contrary to his employment contract, which stated that non-teaching staff were not entitled to cash in lieu of leave.
Prosecutor Idah Maromo appeared for the State.