ZACC Arrests Council For Legal Education Official For Fraud
The Zimbabwe Anti-corruption Commission (ZACC) says it has arrested the Executive Secretary for the Council for Legal Education on allegations of fraud.
In a statement, ZACC said Huggins Hardwork Duri was arrested for allegedly soliciting bribes from people who failed or did not sit for Conversion Examinations in exchange for facilitating registration with Council.
Duri has since appeared in Court and was remanded to 25 of August 2023 on US$500.00 bail. Read the statement by ZACC:
ZACC arrested one Huggins Hardwork Duri on allegations of fraud. The accused person is the Executive Secretary for the Council for Legal Education, a Statutory Board responsible for regulating legal education, designating foreign legal qualifications and administration of conversion examinations among other functions.
It is alleged that the accused person was approaching persons who had graduated from Foreign Universities soliciting for bribes in exchange for facilitating registration with Council and ensuring that they were issued with certificates indicating a pass grade for all Conversion Examinations for persons that had failed the examinations or had not sat for these examinations.
The informant is a holder of a Law Degree obtained from a Foreign country. His application for exemption from writing Conversion Examinations had been rejected by Council. He threatened to report the accused person to law enforcement officials.
In exchange for not reporting the matter, the accused person undertook to facilitate the registration process for the informant on payment of the required registration fee of USD560.00.
The accused person would also ensure that the informant would get a pass grade for all subjects on his certificate even if he failed. The informant agreed to this arrangement and reported the matter to ZACC.
The accused was arrested after receiving USD520.00 which was part of the registration fees. Further investigations conducted established that the accused had issued 19 fraudulent certificates indicating a pass grade to individuals who had failed the examinations and to those that never sat any of the Council Examinations.
ZACC added that Duri has since appeared in Court and was remanded to the 25th of August 2023 on US$500 bail.
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