MATTHEW TAKAONAH| Mirror| HARARE– The Public Service Commission has reinstated Brighton Chiuzingo, the Chief Paymaster at the Government Salaries Service Bureau (SSB) suspended last year on allegations of awarding himself hefty salary increases and back pays without the knowledge or authority of his superiors.
Chiuzungo’s return to work has shocked the civil service even though he has not gone back to the same office he was using.
Efforts to get a comment from PSC secretary Ambassador Jonathan Wutawunashe were futile as his mobile phone could not be reached.
The Mirror however, has it on good authority that Chiuzingo was reinstated on May 19, 2020 after he challenged his suspension in court.
Well placed sources said Chiuzungo’s return is a confirmation of Government’s lack of will to fight corruption.
They alleged that the State case was sabotaged by Government lawyers resulting in a weak case against Chiuzungo.
Allegations against Chiuzungo were that in 2018 he arbitrarily increased his salary by 40% from $1 261 to $1 755. He also increased his representation allowance from $641 to $899 and housing allowance from $574 to $764.
This was discovered when he allegedly collected a back pay of $641 and he was suspended by Wutawunashe.
Sources told The Mirror at the time that there was deep-seated high level corruption at the Public Service Commission and the SSB where senior officials looted Government vehicles and funds through nefarious schemes.
A former chief at the Public Service Commission inflated his retirement package by calculating it under retrenchment schemes which pay more. A former Permanent secretary for Public Service rehired her mother who was a teacher after she retired and then gave her a fresh retirement package.
The chief at PSC retired without paying his loan of over $160 000 and this was US$ then.
The same permanent secretary employed more than 100 relatives and friends into the civil service without following procedure.
Under a motor car scheme for managers, senior civil servants walked with two to four cars within five years.
“The PSC and SSB were very rotten institutions and we thought the new dispensation was going to clean all that and start on a new page. We are shocked that a man suspended on a case that has paper trail has won his case at the courts and he is back at work.
“We also know that right from the start of the case that Government had no will power to pursue the case hence Chiuzingo is back,” said a source.
#MasvingoMirror#