Anonymous
RE: REQUEST TO END CORRUPTION, ABUSE OF WORKERS AND EMBEZZLEMENT OF FUNDS AT CATCH (Registered PVO 35/2012).
This communication serves to bring to you attention corruption, abuse of workers and embezzlement of funds taking place at CATCH which requires urgent attention from responsible authorities. Care at the Core of Humanity with abbreviation CATCH is a private voluntary organisation which specialises with child rights but at the same time violating the rights of workers.
To start with the Executive Director Maxwell Chambari who is also the founder possess no required qualifications to lead the organisation. That is not the only problem causing chaos at this PVO the founder syndrome which is negatively affecting the organisation. The director is above the law and policies of the organisation. In 2018 the director breached the safe guarding policy and married a student intern at the organisation Benice Rondodzai. During the course of internship she was on pay roll yet all other interns were volunteers without salaries. To this end his wife Benice Rondodzai is still on payroll as a child protection officer at the organisation but she does not even work there. No action was taken by the organisation to protect women from sexual harassment at the work place. The human resources officer who is the custodian of polices at the organisation is the right hand man of the director and as such he is a puppet he doesn’t stand for the workers and advocate for the welfare of the worker rather when workers raise concern on their wellbeing he threatens the workers that their employment will be terminated. The same Human Resources Officer is still employed as a full time employee of the organisation but he stopped reporting for duty in March 2020 is running another business elsewhere. We request the Anti-Corruption commission to investigate on how he acquired his personal vehicle BMW X3 series REG AFA4490 and whether or not the required duty on purchasing vehicle was adhered to. It is widely known that he purchased his personal vehicle using organisation name to avoid paying the said duty.
This organisation advocates for human rights but ironically the management violates the human rights of its employees. The violation of the rights are as follows January 2021 salaries were not received ,the employees were working from home but the director stated that no salaries would be disbursed because of the fact that contracts were not signed yet the Director and the Human Resources Officer did not expressly inform the employees that their contracts have been terminated. This is an unfair labour practice and the Director is contravening section 12 of the Labour Act [Chapter 28:01] because a contract of employment can be signed in retrospect.
Furthermore, under the help desk initiative which is being funded by TRACE employees implementing the help desk initiative only received the said helpdesk allowances for January up to April 2020.Be that as it may, at the end of each month they sign cash receipts and claim forms to acknowledge that they have received their helpdesk allowance but up to date no help desk allowances have been received. The Director together with Finance and administration Manager when confronted about the allowances in arrears for the help desk initiative they keep saying that Legal Resource Foundation hasn’t disbursed the funds from May 2020 up to date to CATCH others in the consortium are receiving their monthly stipends. In the Harare minutes dated 9 November 2020 the director mentioned that the allowance have been reduced by half by employees are forced to sign for the initials amount The Finance Manager, Human resource officer, finance officer and director are abusing workers’ allowances.
Employees are forced to sign acknowledgement of receiving cash which they will not have received in many instances for example in 2019 UNICEF awarded CATCH a research project on drugs ,alcohol and substance abuse and the research was conducted . Officers signed receipts acknowledging receiving of funds but up to now nothing was given to the officers.
There is vehicle scam also taking place at CATCH. The organisation is buying vehicles from management. The Honda fit REG AFF 0763 which is being used at head office belongs to Shadreck Kanhukamwe who is the HR and blue eyed boy. The last one was bought from MER manager. We request an audit on all these shady deals. CATCH was in DREAMS project in Manicaland being sub-granted by FACT since 2016 however in 2019 FACT terminated the contract after noticing great misuse of funds by CATCH. In 2016 Plan also terminated contract with CATCH after misuse by the same management
It is important to point out that forgery is taking place especially on programs expenditure and salaries of workers. Staff are told that they are contributing to NSSA but when one ask for NSSA number the Finance Manager is failing to produce it.
At this juncture one can note that this PVO is no longer complimenting government efforts but the management is benefiting from corrupt activities at the expense of vulnerable society which is supposed to be served.
As concerned citizens and employees we shun corruption and we appeal for the following action
- That the director should be suspended impending investigation by independent board or Anti-Corruption Commission.
- Suspension of Finance manager, HR officer and finance officer pending investigations by independent auditors or body.
- The CATCH board of Directors to appoint interim Director pending investigations.
- We call upon NANGO and PVO board to monitor PVO’s since there is gross incompetence and abuse by many PVO’s in Zimbabwe.
- Last but not least we call upon the CATCH body to act swiftly on employees ‘outstanding salaries and allowances.
As CATCH workers we are willing to provide more information and to cooperate in the investigation of all matters raised above. Time to end corruption is now.
Yours sincerely
CATCH EMPLOYEES