This was after investigations carried out by the Criminal
Investigations Department (CID) Commercial Crimes Department unearthed
fraudulent generations of medical aid claims to CIMAS. Kusotera operates
pharmacies in Masvingo and is registered by CIMAS under its Blue Zone network
of service providers.
Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) national police spokesperson
Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi confirmed the arrest.
“I can confirm the arrest Kusotera and Munoda for
fraudulently generating inflated figures of medical aid claims to CIMAS and in
some cases got paid for medication that was never provided to the
beneficiaries,” said Ass Com Nyathi.
Sources close to the matter revealed that CIMAS conducted a
quality check on claims submitted by Channel Pharmaceuticals before a
validation exercise was carried out to check for the genuineness of
prescriptions.
The validation revealed that between January 2021 and
January 2022, Munoda who was working in cahoots with Kusotera, submitted 477
fraudulent claims to CIMAS worth ZWL$1 271 964 and US$2 008.
On September 17, 2019, Channel Pharmaceuticals allegedly
signed a contractual agreement which stated that it would provide CIMAS’
members with medication and CIMAS would later pay for the medicines on behalf
of the members.
They allegedly falsified documents that showed that CIMAS
members had received drugs covered by the medical aid leading CIMAS to deposit
the money into Channel Pharmaceuticals’ bank accounts.
During investigations at least 32 members whose names
appeared on the fraudulent claims are said to have been interviewed and denied
receiving any of the stated drugs with some saying they had no chronic
conditions as stated in the claim forms. Masvingo Mirror
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