Varsity bursar up for $10m fraud

The assistant bursar with the Midlands State University with responsibility for the payroll has been issued with a warrant of arrest after he went on the run and failed to appear at the Gweru Magistrate Courts where he is facing charges of fraud for swindling the university of over $10 million by creating ghost workers.

He was supposed to appear in court this week.

Allegations are that between January and April, Norman Chiwanza, whose duties included compiling a payroll schedule as well as disbursing salaries to the university employees, created list of ghost workers among them his wife.

It is the State's case that he paid 10 people including his wife who is not an employee of MSU, thereby causing an actual prejudice of $6 071 202 and US$1750.

The matter only came to light after he went on leave and someone acting in his position received a complaint from an employee who had not received his salary that month.

The State further argues that the acting assistant bursar called Chiwanza requesting him to provide pay sheets so that he could check why the employee was not paid, but he failed.

The acting bursar later wrote an e-mail to the bank requesting for the information to be provided and thus when the anomalies were discovered, resulting in a full-scale investigation.

The auditors are still pursuing the matter with the amount of prejudice likely to rise.