Four ZETDC employees arrested for defrauding company

By a Correspondent
POLICE in Plumtree have arrested four Zimbabwe Electricity Distribution and Transmission Company (ZETDC) employees at the town for allegedly defrauding the company of fuel worth about US$5 000.
The four, Albert Ncube, Bianca Chikukwa, Dumisani Ndlovu, and Elvis Chimbora have since appeared before Bulawayo magistrate Ms Nomagugu Maphosa facing fraud charges.
They were not asked to plead and were remanded out of custody to March 7 on $50 000 bail each.
Prosecuting, Ms Tapiwanashe Pomerai said between June 2021 and January this year, Ncube, Chikukwa, Ndlovu and Chimbora allegedly tampered with the organisation’s monthly fuel expenditure returns and gave their superiors false acquittals and defrauded their employer of fuel worth US$5 000.
The court said that an audit was conducted which led to the discovery of the anomaly.
“Sometime in January 2023, fuel records were audited, and it was discovered that the accused persons had falsified information on the monthly fuel expenditure returns,” said Ms Pomerai.
The ZETDC Plumtree Deport draws fuel from the Bulawayo main depot in bulk. The quartet was supposed to give a report to the main depot on how the fuel was utilised.
“The accused persons, working with one Muteerwa who is the regional stores man at the ZETDC Bulawayo main depot connived and gave false information on how the fuel was used,” said Ms Pomerai
In their defence, the four men said between June 26, 2021 and December 20 last year, the company vehicle fleet number 1 467 used 1 300 liters of petrol yet the vehicle uses diesel.
They said from September 2, 2022 to 2 January 2023, the vehicles fleet number 4114 and 4160 used 1 680 litres of fuel yet the vehicles had been decommissioned during that period.
The company lost about US$5 040. A report was made to the police leading the accused persona’s arrest.