Mupfumira and National Social Security Authority (NSSA)
director Barnabas Matongera are jointly charged and accused of not seeking
board approval and flouted tender processes by entering into a housing project
prejudicing NSSA of US$6,5 million.
The witness, Memory Mukondomi, had on Tuesday told
magistrate Ngoni Nduna that Mupfumira had pressured her by giving her 48 hours
to complete the deal.
But yesterday under cross-examination by Mupfumira’s lawyer
Admire Rubaya, she admitted that the former minister was not involved in the
meeting that sealed the deal. Instead, she said that it was NSSA board chair
Robin Vela who issued that ultimatum to complete the deal.
Mupfumira is accused of acting contrary to her duties by
directing NSSA to engage in the Muzenya off-take housing project in Gweru which
resulted in Drawcard Enterprises entering into an agreement with NSSA without
following a tender process.
Matongera is accused of signing the housing project
agreement with Drawcard without a NSSA board approval and having not followed
the tender process.
The duo believes that they were wrongly accused and that
the board should have been the one in the dock as every testimony points to
irregularities by the NSSA board.
Mukondomi, who was the director of finance and
administration in the Public Service ministry, then headed by Mupfumira and now
with the Finance ministry, had on Tuesday accused the former minister of
influencing NSSA into partaking the project saying she was under instructions.
Rubaya, however, asked Mukondomi if pushing for the
completion of the agreement was tantamount to forcing them to disregard the
procurement process to which she said it was not.
Mukondomi said Mupfumira never sat in the board and that
she was a policymaker and the ministry’s political figurehead. Mukondomi was
the link between NSSA and the Public Service ministry.
Matongera’s lawyer, Richard Masinire questioned Mukondomi’s
credibility pointing out that she was sitting on the NSSA board from 2012 yet
she told the court that she was seconded there in 2014.
He further pointed out that such agreements did not require
procurement processes, producing the June 2017 board minutes which Mukondomi
agreed to have been part of.
“A new housing project structure was being proposed for the
properties division. A contractor will be required to have title of the piece
of land on which it would construct houses. The land will be ceded to the
authority as security of funds provided to develop the land and a performance
guarantee would also be required for any funds provided over and above the
value of the land. The houses will be sold to the authority at an agreed fixed
price. This investment model would not be subject to approval by the State
Procurement Board,” the minutes read.
He also further said Matongera was not the accounting
officer as shown by the agreement between NSSA and Drawcard, which stated that
Elizabeth Chitiga was the representative of NSSA, hence she was responsible for
everything.
“The general manager (Chitiga) was authorised to sign all
documents on behalf of the authority,” the minutes read, which Masinire said
showed that Chitiga was responsible for everything and that if tender processes
were not followed then the board was responsible as the minutes stated.
Another, Witness Lovemore Nyika, who was a director at
NSSA, told the court that in his statement to Zacc, he only talked of Matongera
and Chitiga as at his level he did not interact with the minister.
He said he did not know what part Mupfumira played in the
awarding of the contract for the housing project.
Magistrate Nduna postponed the matter to today for
continuation. Newsday
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