Harare City Council Internal Audit Division SuppressingFuel Scam

Date: 20 May 2016

  1. Introduction: The Harare Residents Trust (HRT) investigates matters that are brought to its attention by known and unknown citizens, who are concerned with issues. Evidence has been gathered and it confirms that petrol amounting to US$70 000 was claimed and payments made to Raven Court Fuels but the petrol was not delivered to Harare Water's Highfield Water Works Depot. Despite this, the whereabouts of 52 000 litres of petrol are unknown, and yet US$70 000 left the coffers of Harare Water Projects Account. There are indications that the Internal Audit is leading in the suppression of the investigations as they are unwilling to nail the real culprits, instead they are targeting low level employees who are remotely linked to the scam.
  1. Methodology of Siphoning Fuel Funds:
  2. Mr L Mabika at Harare Water makes claims for fuel from Godfrey Kusangaya as Finance Manager, and he prepares all the necessary paperwork, and at times none, including placement of orders.

2.2.Dates Recorded:

2.2.1.Then Kusangaya authorises and makes the payments to the suppliers, in this instance Raven Court Fuels, whose Account Number is 011 22 71 44 90016 held at CBZ, Kwameh Nkrumah for petrol work US$5 000, drawn using the RTGS from the City of Harare Projects account number 100000 6390 2129 on 25 May 2015. The petrol was not delivered but documents indicate that the fuel was delivered in Highfield Works Yard.

2.2.2.In all the cases, diesel was claimed and physically delivered, but petrol was not delivered in most of the cases.

2.2.3.On 27 March 2015, petrol worth US$5 600, fully claimed and payments processed, was diverted to an unknown destination, 4 000 litres just gone.

2.2.4.On 4 September 2015, US$5 400 for petrol was processed from the coffers of Harare Water, but the fuel on this occasion cost US$5 520. The City of Harare authorised, through Kusangaya the transfer of US$5 400 but because at that point, the CABS account number 1003655386 had insufficient funds, either Kusangaya or Mabika added US$120 from their own pockets and finally paid into Raven Court Fuels CBZ account US$5 520. On each transaction the quantity of petrol is 4 000 litres.

2.2.5.On one of their delivery notes, Raven Court Fuels indicates that 4 000 litres of petrol was received at Harare Water by L. Mabika, delivered by Truck Registration Number ABZ 2124, Tanker Number ABN 8283 by driver only identified as Gari, and it was loaded by Depot Operator Phineas.

2.2.6.These thefts of Harare Water fuel went on for several months in 2015, and unconfirmed reports indicate that this has been the trend since the introduction of the multi-currency payment in February 2009. The HRT has observed with disgust the non-action of council management when it comes to dealing with corruption at Harare Water.

2.2.7.Internal Audit became involved in April 2016 following a tip off by a whistleblower at Highfield Works Yard who felt that service delivery was being compromised, and their salaries were being delayed by council, and yet some senior managers were busy diverting municipal fuel for their private purposes. The Internal Audit division is led by Mr Issa, stationed at Rowan Martin Department, and falls administratively under the Town Clerk's Office.

2.2.8.Their investigation revealed that US$70 400 was stolen from council coffers in fuel which was fully paid for but was not used by the City of Harare, neither was it delivered to any of Harare Water's works yards.

2.2.9.The internal audit team was led by a Mr Tsoka and Mrs Doreen Mashindi, who thoroughly investigated the matter and made a detailed report which implicated Kusangaya and other team members at stores, only identified by the sources as Mabika, Chierengo, Reza, Harry and Chitate.

2.2.10.It was during the process of the internal audit that evidence, documents, which were being kept by a Ms Lillian Murevi, who is strongly suspected to be very close with Kusangaya, were allegedly stolen and vanished from the offices, denying the internal audit team access to other incriminating evidence. Murevi was recently promoted from being a Chief Clerical Officer Grade 10 to being Accounting Assistant Grade 9, and now she is at the centre of the controversy as she allegedly hid or withheld important information from the internal auditor.

2.2.11.What is most surprising about the fuel orders by Harare Water is that there are very few petrol-driven vehicles in the Department, a lot of them being motor cycles which are used by water meter readers, with most of the vehicles being diesel engines. The petrol storage facility at Highfield Works Yard is only able to take in 1 500 litres of petrol and the diesel storage facility takes in 9 000 litres. If this is the correct situation, it means that for every 4 000 litres bought, 2 500 litres would not have any place to be stocked, leading to massive fuel abuses by the senior managers at Harare Water.

2.2.12.More evidence that has been given to the HRT shows that the Harare City Council Internal Audit Manager Mr Issa has a proven track record of protecting Kusangaya, former Town Clerk Dr Tendai Mahachi from scrutiny by Council, and many other reports have been either neutralised or simply suppressed with no action being taken. All the reports which have reportedly implicated Kusangaya since 2006 when Harare Water employees returned from ZINWA have not been implemented. As a safeguard measure against being exposed, Kusangaya is the only Harare Water employee who has never filled in a leave form, and has never gone on leave, even for a few days. If he was used to be protected by former Town Clerk Dr Mahachi, does it mean that he has found a new protector in the form of the Acting Town Clerk or some other force outside the Council? Why is Kusangaya not being punished for his many documented transgressions in City of Harare?

  1. The HRT seeks answers on behalf of Harare residents.
  2. Evidence show that this scam has happened with the full connivance of Councillors from the Environment Management and Human Resources Committee who allegedly get paid huge sums of money in bribes to silence them from making any policy decisions to either discipline him or take up the matter with the prosecuting authorities to ensure that the fraud is officially prosecuted.

3.2.There is overwhelming evidence to show that the City of Harare Finance Director Mr Justin Mandizha who has been with the City of Harare for nearly eight months, had managed to close major financial accounting leakages in the council, a scenario which has left most councillors and officials seething with anger for being denied the access to usual sources of unaccounted funds. The sources claimed that this was the reason there was consensus among the councillors in the Human Resources Committee and some of the council managers, who had been used to accessing easy funds from council revenue streams without being held accountable.

3.3.The HRT continues to investigate how the City of Harare has really to move forward despite having some of the most experienced and educated employees. It is always a puzzle how the City of Harare is unable to progress when it raises a lot of revenue from its diverse sources.

Can 52 000 litres just disappear, worthy US$70 400 and no one is punished yet internal audit has exposed the whole scam? We demand action from Acting Town Clerk and Acting Mayor.

  1. Corruption Deepen in Harare Water as Finance Manager Loots Unhindered
  2. Harare Water Finance Manager Mr Godfrey Kusangaya has been again caught up in a scandal that prejudiced Harare Water US$6 million in money paid for work improperly done at Firle Sewer Treatment Plant. The information given to the HRT indicates that Kusangaya, working with his colleagues at Harare Water have now established a well-knit network involving the City of Harare Human Resources Committee and the Audit Manager, who is stationed at Rowan Martin Building. This network is used to absorb the issues and redirect them elsewhere, ridding the system of the whistle blowers who expose the massive corruption.

4.2.The name of company that was contracted by Harare Water is reportedly to remove sand clogging the system from digesters but they did absolutely nothing to satisfy the council, and yet they were fully paid their money, through their bogus company, called Erac, which is fronted by some people linked to Kusangaya.

4.3.Despite being alerted to this scandal, the Audit manager Mr Issa has reportedly refused to act, claiming that these issues should be internally resolved.

The HRT will continue to expose these acts of corruption.

Contactdetails: , 04-797357 and Website:

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