Two TIMB Bosses Remanded In Custody On Corruption Charges
The Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) has arrested the Tobacco Industry Marketing Board (TIMB) chairperson, Patrick Devenish, and the organisation’s chief executive officer Meanwell Gudu.
Devenish and Gudu appeared in court on Saturday, charged with criminal abuse of office. They were remanded in custody until Monday, August 26, for a bail application hearing before Harare regional magistrate Sandra Mupindu.
The duo are accused of extending a $397,000 loan to a local company owned by Itayi Masuka, without the knowledge or approval of other TIMB board members.
According to the State’s case, in May 2021, Devenish and Gudu, acting in common purpose and with the intention to defraud TIMB, granted the loan to Ultimate Accolade (Private) Limited, owned by the Masuka family.
They allegedly misrepresented that the loan was being provided under the Tobacco Inputs Credit Scheme funded by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ), despite being aware that the RBZ’s funding for this scheme had been discontinued.
It is further alleged that Gudu, while out of the office, instructed the special projects manager to have the loan contracts signed by the acting chief operations officer, Blessing Dhokotera, who believed the loan was part of the legitimate Tobacco Inputs Credit Scheme.
As a result of this misrepresentation, the full $397,739.51 loan was disbursed to Ultimate Accolade (Private) Limited.
However, from 2021 to 2023, no significant effort was made to recover the debt, until the current acting CEO brought the issue to the board’s attention late last year.
The board then tasked the executive management to recover the debt, but so far, only $16,000 has been recovered out of the total $539,650.50, including interest.
Gudu’s arrest comes a day after he was acquitted by the Harare Magistrate Court of all charges related to the alleged misappropriation of over $2 million.
More: Pindula News
