FORMER Harare City council top brass are facing arrest for illegally authorising over US$8 million in packages for managers and splashing millions on allowances, personal vehicles and holidays that milked the local authority coffers dry, NewsDay has learnt. BY MOSES MATENGA Anti-corruption hawks are now investigating the illegal spending, which prejudiced the cash strapped council of millions in United States dollars between 2014 and 2015. One of the culprits, human capital director Cainos Chingombe has since been arrested by a police special unit working in conjunction with the Special Anti-Corruption Unit (Sacu). He is expected to appear in court today. The council top brass, on top of gobbling over US$500 000 a month in salaries, also unprocedurally used over US$530 000 of unbudgeted funds to purchase top-of-the-range vehicles that include a Jeep Grand Cherokee, Toyota Land Cruiser 200 series, Toyota Land Cruiser pickup, a Land Rover Discovery and Toyota Land Cruiser Prado. Sacu head Tabani Mpofu confirmed the probe. “Yes, the special unit of police is seized with the matter,” Mpofu said. “There are too many objectives that include prosecution of those who will be found in the wrong and recovery of funds that might have been stolen from residents in the currency the money was stolen in,” Mpofu said. Police special unit sources also confirmed the broad investigation that officials say may be centred around an audit report on the executive management employment cost compliance that was chaired by Retired judge Justice George Smith. A total of US$6 251 937 was used as retrenchment packages for at least 10 top managers then, with Stanley Mungofa the highest earner, pocketing a cool US$1 747 232,05 in 2015. Others received stands and houses free of charge on top of the hefty packages as part of their retrenchments. Those who benefitted from the illegal dishing out of pecks, according to the report, include former Chamber Secretary Josephine Ncube and Tendai Kwenda (Finance), acting town clerk Prosper Chonzi among others. “The tribunal notes that there was no retrenchment policy in place at the time that the negotiations were undertaken and the amounts paid as retrenchment packages were not budgeted for,” the report read in part. “The human capital director recommended to the caretaker council a deviation from the Procurement Act and the normal procurement procedure of the council in his report tabled before the council on July 30, 2013. The recommendation was unlawful and the chamber secretary, as chief legal advisor, ought to have warned council against sanctioning such blatant breach and contempt of the law,” the report read in part. It added: “In an interview with the human capital director, he specifically stated that the reasoning behind the deviation from the normal procedures was to circumvent procurement processes which he felt were unnecessarily cumbersome, a position that had been discussed at length with the town clerk and the chamber secretary.” In the process, the officials used money from the traditional