Netone boss Kangai fired, faces arrested

Netone chief executive office Reward Kangai who has been on suspension has been fired from duty for looting the company coffers and faces a possible arrest. Kangai was suspended in March for three months by ICT Minister Supa Mandiwanzira to pave way for forensic audit to investigate corrupt activities that were going on the mobile company. Some of the allegations were:  Uncleared bank reconciliations dating back to 2013 which exposed NetOne to the risk of duplicate payments;  6-year prepayments for cellphone tower rentals;  A poorly negotiated contract with Gemalto, the provider of NetOne’s OneWallet mobile money service, which earned support fees and payment on all registered OneWallet users, whether they were active or not;  Payments made to Bopela, the provider of cell phone towers that received money for work despite not having a contract with NetOne. Information available says Kangai also allegedly looted about US$11 million from the mobile phone service provider through FirstTel Cellular, a company that he owns together with other NetOne executives. Mr Kangai was using FirstTel Cellular to market the parastatal's products and it is believed that FirstTel received US$11 million but did not provide the stated services, and Mr Kangai later tried to convince the NetOne board not to pursue the matter.

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