DISGRUNTLED Zimbabwe United Passenger Company employees, who have gone for months without pay, have alleged that massive corruption is bleeding the public transporter.
The workers, whose allegations have been corroborated by former employees who were laid off after finances at Zupco became critical, also alleged that the management was trying to conceal the challenges using cooked up financial reports.
The workers shared with NewsDay a dossier of the allegations which has been copied to various ani-graft agents.
Zupco was recently put under the Mutapa Investment Fund as the government pushes to save the ailing State enterprise which enjoyed a more than two-year public transport monopoly when the world went into lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In an interview this week, Mutapa chief executive John Mangudya called on the management at Zupco to treat the allegations with the seriousness they deserves.
“The issues that you have raised are under the purview of the Zupco board in terms of good corporate governance. As Mutapa Investment Fund, which is a major shareholder, we will take our part to investigate once the board has done so,” he said.
Zupco board chairperson Jemister Chininga and acting chief executive Linda Samunderu ignored NewsDay efforts to hear their side of the story through texts, WhatsApp messages and phone calls.
However, the workers, who requested anonymity, accused management of “window dressing their financial accounts to shun external audit with false financial statements (sic)”.
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They also said the liquidity problems bedevilling the company had resulted in massive and unjustified retrenchment of workers.
“The Zupco wage bill is (higher) than the actual payments forwarded to ... the employees accounts. This is done to accommodate the number of ghost workers [who] get a larger share,” the workers alleged.
“If the government is to intervene and compare actual numbers of employees with the budgeted wage bill, it will discover a huge variance, currently channelled to the top management’s ghost accounts.”
The workers also alleged that the public transporter was pushing for retrenchment to cover up ahead of a potential audits. They also alleged massive false misinformation on receipting and issuing of diesel.
“Zupco is crumbling because management loots a lot of diesel bought for the company, either by the government or by the company itself,” the workers claimed.
“Recently, a senior official was under investigation for fuel variances of diesel received and issued, but was not accounted for.”
The workers also allege that the ruling Zanu PF party paid for buses hired during campaigns with diesel and money, but this was re-directed to benefit individuals including senior officials.
“Junior workers did not get anything from the business made through Zanu PF. Salaries are still outstanding. Instead Zupco financial statements for the end of 2023 were window dressed to disguise (sic) government auditors,” they said.
According to several workers who have been interviewed since March this year, Zupco has failed to pay its workers from June last year to date.
“Zupco low-grade employees are suffering because its management team is channelling funds intended for salaries to their own personal accounts in the names of ghost workers.
“Full evidence is shown by a huge backlog of unpaid salaries. At least 99% of Zupco employees did not receive their United States dollar salary component sine June last year. The Zupco management team is disguising that by making part payments to Northern Division, while employees from the Southern Division remain unpaid.
“The Northern Division is within the capital city, so they make these part payments to disguise their corrupt operations. The majority of employees from both Northern and Southern divisions have not [been] paid,” the workers said.
The workers also flagged another misdeed involving procurement of spare parts and spare wheels.
“Fake invoice(s) are produced to disguise auditors when procuring spare parts and wheels for the company. Evidence is shown by a lot of broken down Zupco buses some [of] which have been parked for more than three years at CMED and Zupco depots around the country,” the workers said in the dossier.
There are also allegations of nepotism and favouritism at the bus company.
“Zupco depot managers and supervisors, most of them are under-qualified ... If government conducts a skills audit, the results would be disastrous. They were appointed so that the management can be protected,” the workers further claimed.
The workers also highlighted challenges linked to political players with management allegedly hiding behind politics to loot the company.
The workers are praying for government “to intervene and outwit these individuals because they are the ones who tarnish the image of the government”.
