‘Eaglesvale Headmaster, Salaries Officer &Bursar In US $800 000 Fraud, Trial’

EAGLESVALE Senior’s head and other officials were dragged to the courts Wednesday on allegations of defrauding the school of US $800 000.

Salaries officer Cheryl Botha, 52, headmaster Naison Tirivari, 60, and bursar Charles Blessing Shokobishi, 57 were not asked to plead when they appeared before magistrate Francis Mapfumo.

They were released on US$1,000 bail each with stringent reporting conditions and were remanded to October 30.

The complainant in the case is the vice chairperson of the school’s board.

Prosecutor Idah Maromo said sometime in 2014, the schools’ board members held an extraordinary meeting with a view to look into the financial report for the year.

They discovered discrepancies involving cash payments in lieu of leave days to non-teaching staff despite the board giving standing instructions to the three offenders in 2013 that there should be no encashment of leave days.

A forensic audit ordered by the board established that Botha was paying herself unauthorised cash in lieu of leave.

Prosecutor Maromo told court that Botha would enter varying amounts of cash in lieu of leave on a number of employees on the pay roll and send these for authorisation.

Once the authorisation was obtained from headmaster Tirivari, the two would then alter the pay roll to have the cash in lieu of leave allocated back to Botha.

The net amount cumulatively transferred to Botha’s bank account as a result of inflated fraudulent payment of cash in lieu of leave and overstated bonuses was US$518,007.

Tirivari was also said to have authorised his cash in lieu of leave of US$135,377 during a period extending from 2011 to 2015.

He also received unapproved cash amounting to $13,366, being termly allowance without the knowledge of the board. As a result of his actions the school suffered a total prejudice of US$148,743.

School bursar Shokobishi, in connivance with the schools head, received US$19,903 in lieu of 225 days leave contrary to his employment contract which states that non-teaching staff are not entitled to cash in lieu of leave.

The court heard that accused persons actions caused the school to suffer a total prejudice of US$873,840 and nothing was recovered. source-newzimbabwe

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photo-Appeared in court Wednesday … Naison Tirivar