THE Registrar of Companies has disowned the documents allegedly used by a local cleaning company Sterile Systems Hygienic Services to secure a cleaning tender at the Harare International Airport.
COURT REPORTER
Martha Chakanyuka, an official at the Registrar of Companies, told the court last week that the cleaning firm used fraudulent documents. Chakanyuka was giving evidence in the trial of the cleaning firm’s director Venah Kufakunesu, who is facing charges of fraud.
Kufakunesu is accused of having used fraudulent company registration documents and bank statements to win the airport cleaning contract from the State Procurement Board (SPB).
She is also alleged to have used a shelf company and an individual’s Standard Chartered Bank account to bid for the cleaning contract contrary to the tender requirements.
In her defence, Kufakunesu said the Standard Chartered Bank statement, which was in the name of Reeship (Pvt) (Ltd), belonged to her firm, Sterile Systems Hygienic Services, except that it was under an old firm’s name.
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She also accused her rival firm of stealing her valid documents and substituting them with fraudulent ones in her files. However, Standard Chartered Bank branch manager Joyce Munuwa denied that Kufakunesu was not their client.
“We confirm that Sterile System Hygienic Services does not operate an account with us. The account number they quoted for the tender process was fraudulently raised as they used a correct account number which belongs to another company,” Munuwa wrote in a letter addressed to the Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe (CAAZ) and produced in court as an exhibit. The matter was brought to attention of the police by CAAZ general manager David Chawota, who queried the granting of a tender by the SPB to Sterile System Hygienic Services, a firm which they had rejected.
Prosecutor Desire Chidanire said sometime in June last year, CAAZ rejected Kufakunesu firm’s tender and instead recommended Extreme Cleaning Services to the SPB for consideration.
However, the SPB is alleged to have carried out their own verifications of the tender bids and adjudged that Sterile Systems Hygienic Services were compliant in all aspects and awarded it the cleaning tender, taking it away from Extreme Cleaning Services.