Former National Social Security Authority (NSSA) general manager James Matiza yesterday appeared in court facing charges of fraud and criminal abuse of office as a public officer.
Matiza reportedly bought a Harare property for $32 million for the authority, a price inflated by over $8 million after concealing a report by Bard Real Estate which priced the building at $24 million.
Matiza appeared before magistrate Mrs Vongai Muchuchuti-Guwuriro and was granted $500 bail coupled with stringent conditions. He was remanded to January 18 for trial.
He is being represented by Harrisson Nkomo of Mhishi Nkomo Legal Practitioners. Prosecuting, Ms Nancy Chandakaona alleged that in September 2014 NSSA identified a property it was keen to buy from Matay-Kingdom known as Celestial Park situated along Borrowdale Road in Harare.
It is alleged that Matiza was always physically available to represent NSSA together with his accomplices, Shadreck Vera, who was the investments director; and Samuel Chuduza, who is the former properties manager; who are still at large.
It is the State’s case that during this time, Matiza was the chairperson of the NSSA management investments committee and a member of the investment committee while his accomplices were members of the board.
The trio was mandated to first seek property valuators to determine the market value of the property for NSSA to have a benchmark price bargaining before purchasing the property, the court heard. It is alleged that the trio obtained valuation reports from three companies.
Bard Real Estate came up with a gross replacement cost of $29 million, forced value of $18 million and a market value of $24 million.
CB Richard Ellis came up with a gross replacement cost of $24.354 million and a market price of $25.6 million while Green Plan (Pvt) Ltd came up with a market price of $36,5 million.
The three reports were supposed to be tabled to the board of adjudication before the agreement of sale was entered into by the seller.
Of the three reports, the one from Bard Real Estate was the most favourable and it would give NSSA bargaining power but Matiza allegedly worked in cahoots with his accomplices and deliberately concealed the report and referred the other two reports which were not cost effective to the board which eventually worked with a higher valuation by Green Plan.
Through this concealment the trio misrepresented to NSSA that the property was worth $36.5million yet they were aware that the property was worth $24 million as per the cheapest valuation report.
It is the State’s case that the property was eventually purchased for $32 million after bargaining, the court heard.
Matiza misrepresented to NSSA by keeping silent on the availability of the valuation report by Bard Real Estate and causing prejudice to good administration of NSSA.