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Prosper Ndlovu/Oliver Kazunga, Business Reporters
THE Hwange Colliery Company Limited (HCCL) board has suspended acting managing director, Mr Shepard Manamike and executive, finance and administration head Mr Tawanda Marapira citing unethical conduct and failure to meet key obligations.

The decision comes barely five months after the troubled colliery fired former managing director, Engineer Thomas Makore, pending a disciplinary hearing over “charges of undermining the authority of the board and unethical business conduct”. He (Makore) later resigned from the organisation.

Yesterday acting board chair Juliana Muskwe said HCCL, under Mr Manamike’s watch, has witnessed unethical business practices characterised by financial impropriety, particularly unauthorised expenditure.

“The circumstances are unacceptable especially when the company was focused on production and sales.

“Due to the unauthorised financial transactions, the company failed to meet its key obligations due to its creditors and employees,” she said in statement.

“This is just a temporary setback occasioned by substandard performance within management structures, which the board assures all stakeholders it is on course to address and restore normalcy.”

Mrs Muskwe said HCCL was presently sitting on a 345 000 tonnes stockpile, which was easily convertible to revenue estimated to be around $13 million to enable it to address its short term challenges.

She said the accumulation of a huge stockpile against a large market demand borders on sabotage than anything, which the board has moved in to uproot.

“The mantra under the new dispensation is zero tolerance to corruption. The board is entrusted to protect the interest of the company and preserve investor value.

“This company is strategic to the national economy and cannot be prevented from becoming a successful concern on account of substandard performance,” she said.

Disgruntled workers who spoke on condition of anonymity said HCCL has in the past two months failed to honour its obligations of giving them their outstanding monthly dues, as agreed in the Scheme of Arrangement that was sealed last year.

They claimed senior management was prioritising personal interests at the expense of the success of the company.

The workers also alleged that there were a lot of illicit and corrupt deals at HCCL involving abuse of funds and product leakages that they wanted Government to interrogate.

In its half year ended June 30, 2018, HCCL reported a $23 million loss compared to $24,5 million in the same period last year.

Although production inched 819 859 tonnes from 565 298 tonnes achieved in the same period in 2017, production performance was 22 percent short of the budgetary target of 1 047 026 tonnes.

Total sales tonnage for the period was 682 152t from 450 452t for the same period last year against a budget of 1 242 880 tonnes.

The company remains in the red with its asset base value retreating to $182 million compared to $216 million in the prior comparable period. This compares negatively with liabilities valued at over $300 million.

The firm, however, hopes to turnaround fortunes in the second half of the year riding on a raft of strategic measures pitched by the board and management.