EX-PREMIER Service Medical Aid Society group chief executive officer Dr Cuthbert Dube and his management team will be forced to return US$22 million-plus they allegedly siphoned out of the institution between 2009 and 2013, our Harare Bureau has gathered.
This includes cash Dr Dube used on Zimbabwe Football Association missions during his stint as the soccer body’s president, and loans extended to his daughter and son-in-law. The payback encompasses executives — both former and serving — who evaded tax and “enriched themselves unjustly” following a forensic audit by Ernst & Young.
A Government panel is working on the matter and will soon spell out the restitution procedures. The panel’s guiding document, “Additional Recommendations from the Forensic Audit Findings”, demands “full cash recovery”.
It reads: “All loans and cash paid for trips not on PSMAS business, for example, Zifa, paid to Dr Dube and his executive managers should be repaid. All loans and cash payments (through transfer) which were paid to Dr Dube and executive management must be recovered in full. Any monies paid to people other than PSMAS employees, for example Dr Dube’s daughter and son-in-law and other extended family members should be recovered in full.”
The document also says, “Even for those who have since left the employment of PSMAS who unjustly enriched themselves should be followed up and the amounts owed recovered. “Tax owed to the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority by PSMAS and staff who benefited without paying tax should be reimbursed to Zimra.”
The 2014-15 forensic audit discovered gross maladministration and abuse of funds at PSMAS. The audit said 11 executives raked in US$22,8 million in allowances were dispensed outside the official payroll. At least 390 employees, it emerged, were paid salaries amounting to US$126 million between January 2009 and December 2013. At the time, PSMAS did not have a policy for salary increases.
Salaries were paid on a 40:60 ratio between PSMAS and its unit, Premier Service Medical Investments, from July to October 2012. Employees received “100 percent salaries” from both PSMAS and PSMI, meaning they received two pay cheques monthly, according to the audit.
PSMAS executive incomes topped US$85 million between January 2009 and December 2013, with bonuses accounting for US$7 million in 2013. All salary and allowance adjustments, according to auditors, were approved by Dr Dube, who allegedly awarded himself an income that came to some US$500 000 monthly.
Source: www.sundaynews.co.zw
