SDA pastor, officials appear in court for K986,000 fraud

THREE Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) pastors and three other officials of the Copperbelt Church Conference have appeared in court for fraud involving K986,000.
Daniel Chuunga, 50, president of the conference, Pastor Abel Koti, 53, a chief finance officer, and John Chishimba, 46, an accountant at the conference, appeared before Ndola Chief Resident Magistrate Paul Chisha for fraudulent false accounting.
The others are Mono Munachonga, 33, an accountant, Wellington Zemba, 43, stewardship director and Rodgers Nshindo also,43, and an office orderly at the conference.
The six were charged with 30 counts of fraudulent false accounting of church funds amounting to K986,000.
It was alleged that the six between January 2013 and March last year, being employees at the SDA Copperbelt Conference, engaged in fraudulent activities amounting to K986,000.
One of the witnesses, Pastor Justin Chapuswike, the executive secretary, told the court that the conference was in March last year audited by the General Conference Auditing Services and that some financial irregularities were found.
“In March last year, the conference was audited, a report of the findings was later given to the chief financial officer and copied to the president and the executives secretary,” he told the court.
In July last year, the governing body instructed the executive committee to scrutinise the audited financial report which had irregularities.
Pastor Chapuswike testified that the executive committee took up the task and scrutinised the audited financial report and discovered that it had irregularities.
He told the court that the committee reported the case to the police who also investigated the report and found irregularities of the financial activities.
Mr Chisha, however, adjourned the case to today for continued trial and extended police bond for all the accused persons.

[times of zambia]