ZANU PF central committee member Mike Chimombe and alleged accomplice Moses Mpofu spent last night in remand prison after being arrested for allegedly defrauding the government of more than US$7 million meant for the Presidential Goat Pass-on Scheme.
Harare regional magistrate Marehwanazvo Gofa remanded Chimombe (43) and Mpofu (49) in custody to today for bail application.
The duo is being represented by Ashwell Mugiya and Tapson Dzvetero.
Prosecutor Anesu Chirenje alleged that sometime in 2021, government, as part of the Rural Development Agenda, introduced the Presidential Goat Pass-on Scheme to alleviate poverty among less-privileged households across Zimbabwe’s 10 provinces.
Government planned to buy more than 600 000 special goat breeds for households and village heads.
The Lands, Agriculture, Water, Fisheries and Rural Development ministry was mandated to implement the programme.
On September 3, 2021, the government flighted a tender for the supply and delivery of the goats with September 17, 2021 as the closing date.
The court heard that as a result, four companies namely Kotrum Enterprises (Pvt) Limited, Blackdeck Livestock and Poultry Farming, Millytake Enterprises (Pvt) Limited and Zvikomborero Farms (Pvt) Limited submitted their bids to the ministry.
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Chirenje alleged that Chimombe and Mpofu, working in connivance and well-knowing that Blackdeck Livestock and Poultry Farming was not registered and did not have a valid Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) tax clearance certificate, forged one which they attached to the bidding document, which they submitted to the ministry.
Investigations conducted by the National Social Security Authority (Nssa) showed that the QR code and the reference number were issued to Skywalk Investments.
It was further established that Blackdeck had been deregistered from the Nssa system on January 8, 2016.
Further investigations by Zimra established that Blackdeck was never issued with a Zimra tax clearance certificate for the year 2021 and that the QR code on the forged tax clearance certificate belonged to Skywalk Investments.
According to the court documents, the ministry believed that what Chimombe and Mpofu presented in their bidding document was true and generated a contract award letter on November 3, 2021 notifying them as successful bidders.
On November 16, 2021, the ministry entered into a contract agreement with Blackdeck for the supply and delivery of 632 001 goats for the scheme.
The tender was valued at US$87 757 168.
On the contract, Blackdeck was represented by Mpofu, with Tinashe Chimombe as the witness.
In Clause 29.1 of the contract agreement, the ministry offered to make a 30% advance payment to Blackdeck.
Chirenje also told the court in an effort to convince the ministry to make an advance payment, the duo held several meetings with officials indicating that they had several goats at their stocking sites.
The ministry reportedly transferred ZWL$901 294 200 and ZWLS$698 705 800 on April 21 and June 29, 2022, respectively, totalling ZWL$1,6 billion, which was equivalent to US$7 712 197,10 to Blackdeck’s bank account for the supply of the goats.
However, following delays in delivering the goats, ministry officials had several engagements with the duo demanding delivery.
In an effort to further deceive and convince the ministry officials, Chimombe and Mpofu allegedly generated and presented a Presidential Goat Pass-on Scheme holding sites schedule misrepresenting that they had mobilised 32 500 goats across the provinces and were ready for distribution.
The ministry reportedly deployed teams to verify if Chimombe and Mpofu had the figures they claimed to have in their goat holding site schedule, but discovered they only had 3 713 goats.
The ministry reportedly cancelled the contract on August 29, 2022.
Investigations established that Chimombe and Mpofu supplied 208 goats valued at US$331 445,25 from the US$7 712 197,10 paid by the ministry.
It is further alleged that they squandered US$7 380 751,85.
