daniel chigunwe
Freeman Razemba
Crime Reporter
The Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) undertook rigorous investigations, resulting in the compilation of 470 dockets across the nation, last year.
Out of these, 343 dockets were submitted to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) for prosecution.
ZACC chairperson Mr Michael Reza confirmed this, stating that their mandate ends upon submitting completed dockets to the NPA.
“In the previous year, we sent or completed 470 dockets, and of those, we sent 343 to the National Prosecuting Authority,” he explained in an interview.
“Over and above that, we had 50 cases sent to the NPA, which are high profile in nature.”
Mr Reza said the anti-graft body also recovered over 350 vehicles illegally imported through the abuse of the civil servants’ vehicle rebate scheme, which allows civil servants to import vehicles duty-free.
Joint investigations involving ZACC, the Zimbabwe Republic Police, and the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority led to the recovery.
Mr Reza highlighted the success of the inter-agency collaboration, adding that investigations remain ongoing and more vehicles are expected to be recovered.
The vehicle rebate scheme was introduced as an incentive for civil servants with at least 10 years of service, allowing duty-free vehicle imports.
However, the scheme prohibits selling, leasing, or hiring the vehicles within five years of import without written permission from ZIMRA. Despite these regulations, many car dealers in Harare have exploited the scheme by colluding with civil servants and using their names to import vehicles duty-free.
In addition to recovering assets, ZACC is focusing on compensating for damages inflicted on the State and victims of corruption.
Online Reporter
