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Business Reporter
SUSPENDED Cottco Holdings Ltd acting head of finance Mr Mudhuvo Mubaiwa is suspected to have siphoned company funds using a “secret” bank account which was not disclosed to the new managing director.

The status of the account had been referred to as inactive.

Mr Mubaiwa was sent on forced leave last Friday to facilitate investigations into allegations of financial impropriety. Acting company secretary Mr Pious Manamike replaced him.

Information gathered by The Herald Business shows that Mr Mubaiwa did not disclose full information relating to the company’s bank accounts. Mr Mubaiwa is alleged to have provided misleading information, particularly on signatories and active bank accounts. In total, he told the new managing director Engineer Christopher Murove that the company had 14 bank accounts but only two were active.

He also provided a list of signatories of the firm’s bank accounts, which comprised some executives that had left. What further raised suspicion was that Mr Mubaiwa did not include himself on the list of the signatories despite being acting head of finance.

Due to the anomalies, Eng Murove then directed all expenditure and payments be authorised only by him.

The “secret” account (name of the bank withheld) became known after the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority imposed a garnish order against Cottco’s active accounts, leaving the company in financial crisis. That is when Mr Mubaiwa informed the managing director about the “secret” bank account, which he had earlier mentioned as inactive.

“When asked why he had stated the account as inactive in his initial list, he failed to provide a satisfactory response,” a source said.

“The company then requested information of the bank statement and signatories. That is when it emerged that Mr Mubaiwa was a signatory, although he had not included himself on the initial list.

“The other signatories are his juniors and former acting head of operations Mr Petros Piki who left the company about one and half a months ago. There is strong suspicion that this account might have been used for some clandestine deals. But this is not the conclusive position. He has been sent on forced leave to facilitate the probe.”

The value of transactions, which went through the bank could not be ascertained. Eng Murove said his predecessor Dr Douglas Ncube had hinted on it, resulting in him taking action.

“There was this suspicion something was going on but he could not put his finger on it. He was actually investigating this issue,” said Eng Murove. “I lost confidence in him because he has been deliberately providing misleading information.

“At that level of responsibility you can’t start telling lies or provide misleading information.”

Efforts to get a comment from Mr Mubaiwa proved fruitless as his mobile phone was not reachable.

An accountant by profession, he joined the company in October 2012 as group head of treasury.