State Procurement Board seeks arrest of former boss

By Tatenda Dewa | Harare Bureau |

The State Procurement Board (SPB) has reported its former boss, Charles Kuwaza, to the police for allegedly evading tax and drawing unauthorised allowances.

The SPB board led by former ambassador, Buzawani Mothobi, has also alerted the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC) which is now supervising procurement following a series of reports of corruption over the years.

Kuwaza reportedly omitted paying salary and allowance taxes on hundreds of thousands of dollars he earned since dollarisation in 2009 even though the rest of the SPB employees complied.

The former SPB head is alleged to have argued that he would not pay tax since his contract was with the OPC but the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA) went on to garnish the board after issuing numerous letters of demand.

Police’s Criminal Investigations Department (CID) Serious Fraud section is said to have opened a docket against Kuwaza, but it could not be established immediately what further action it had taken.

Kuwaza was relieved of his post at SPB, which recommended that he must negotiate his exit package with the OPC.

Mothobi said SPB was working on Kuwaza’s exit.

“We are in the process of finalising on the exit of Mr Kuwaza and all those issues are being taken into account. One does not want to pre-empt some of the things that need to be done and not to be done by just rushing to make statements on those issues,” Mothobi told the government-controlled media. Nehanda Radio