MIRROR REPORTER

GUTU – Twilight Furniture, a company based in Mutare that sells goods to civil servants on credit has been accused of tempering with and fraudulently inflating figures that it submits to the Salary Services Bureau for deduction of instalments.
The company which also has a branch in Bulawayo uses agents to go around schools and the countryside selling goods like home theatres, pots, phones, solar panels, solar batteries, fridges among others. The goods are sold based on Government payslips.
A source at the company said some agents altered figures on the soft copy of the agreement to get higher commissions and urged victims to report to Police.
The Mirror has a list of names of teachers complaining about the same issue.
Several teachers who spoke to The Mirror, some on condition anonymity said they only discovered that the figures were altered on receiving their payslips from SSB. They said debts are sometimes doubled and the instalment period increased by some months.
Efforts to get a comment from Twilight were futile.
SSB paymaster Twoboy Shoko said they protect civil servants from malpractices by companies that prejudice them of their money.
“When civil servants are prejudiced of their money by companies they had agreements with, normally they come to the paymaster who summons the involved company. If there is a prejudice and misrepresentation of information to civil servants,we withdraw the deduction code from the involved company because they will not be working in good faith. I had a meeting with all companies that do business with civil servants as a way of protecting them from such mal business practices,” said Shoko
Gloria Makanda, a contracts agreement forms processing officer with Twilight confirmed the matter in a telephone interview. She said that the company had since fired one of its agents, Talent Tofa after receiving several complaints from clients.
She said agents inflated figures on soft copies of the agreement.
One of the most affected schools is Guvamatanga Primary in Gutu. Teachers said they were looking for company offices to get their money back. Some teachers refused to talk and said that talking openly to the Press on any issue will get them into trouble with Zanu PF leadership in the area.
Enita Mukombe- Mhazo who bought two sets of pots at US$7 x 6 months per set which came with a free blanket and a Techno Pop 8 phone at US$20 X 9 months with a free comforter blanket complained that the money being deducted from her husband’s salary is double the amount she was charged.
“I bought two sets of pots and a Techno Pop 8 from Twilight three months ago through an agent. We are worried that the amount that I was charged is now double what we agreed. The number of months for the instalments has also been increased. In an agreement form that I was made to fill by Talent Tofa, I am supposed to pay US$7 per set of pots and now I am paying US$15. The instalment for the pots is supposed to be six months but it has been increased to nine months,” said Mukombe.
“I don’t disagree that clients are complaining for being overcharged. The agents may change prices to get bigger commissions. They submit the forms in soft copy which they may alter. We only process what we get and a hard copy will only be prepared after three months. We advise those with complaints to report the agents to the Police,” she said.
Efforts to get a comment from Tofa wwre futile as his mobile phone was unavailable.