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Govt ‘stuck’ with council graft report

BY JAIROS SAUNYAMA Government is yet to release findings of a commission appointed to probe Marondera Municipality following allegations of massive corruption and abuse of office by councillors and management. Early this year, the Local Government ministry appointed a team to investigate corruption allegations at the MDC Alliance-led council and is still to present its findings, raising the ire of residents. Local Government deputy minister Marian Chombo, who was overseeing the process, was not picking calls yesterday and did not respond to questions sent to her on WhatsApp. Marondera mayor Chengetai Murowa said they were yet to get the report. “Nothing so far, nothing,” he said. During the probe, the commission interviewed residents and business associations to get to the bottom of the rot. Marondera Urban Business Association vice-chairperson Carlos Pindirire expressed concern over government’s silence over the matter. “The inquiries were mainly on corruption and abuse of office within our council. But nothing yet, they (government) are just quiet,” he said. The probe came after residents petitioned the Local Government ministry accusing councillors of demanding cash and fuel allowances after falsely claiming to have travelled to Harare to attend the late former President Robert Mugabe’s funeral wake last year. NewsDay is reliably informed that during the investigations, it came out that council’s finance director John Kachingwe took leave of absence every week, among other things. The probe team was led by Midlands provincial development co-ordinator Abiot Marongwe.The MDC Alliance has 11 out of 12 councillors in the farming town.

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