THE Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Mines and Energy
has expressed disappointment that no
work has been done at the site of the proposed Gwanda solar power plant despite
Intratek having been paid $5 million for the project.
This emerged during a tour of the project site by MPs in
the company of Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC) executives, officials from
Government departments such the Environmental Management Agency (EMA) and
Gwanda Municipality.
Intratek, a company owned by flamboyant Harare businessman,
Mr Wicknell Chivayo was awarded the tender in 2013 and paid $5 million by ZPC
to build the 100 megawatt Gwanda solar power plant
After receiving the money without a bank guarantee, no
meaningful development has taken place at the site.
Erected at the site are two cabins, toilets with no
ablution facilities and a perimeter fence which does not cover the whole site.
The road network at the site is also poor. It also emerged
that the proposed plant falls under state land and Intratek has failed to pay
the required money for leasing it.
In an interview after the tour, committee chairperson who
is also Norton MP, Mr Temba Mliswa said his committee was disappointed that
money was paid to Intratek but work done on the site is not commensurate with
cash paid upfront.
“Clearly the money that was paid to Intratek does not tally
with what is on the ground. We just saw toilets with no ablution facilities and
sewer, fence which is not done all the way. We need to find out from them why
they have not completed the work,” said Mr Mliswa.
“ZPC were also very clear that they were not happy with
work done so far and it is important for us to understand that this emanates
from the oral evidence from Mr Chivayo when he came before us. ZPC also gave
evidence to the committee.”
Mr Mliswa said his committee had picked a number of
anomalies on the Gwanda project.
Zimbabwe Power Company acting managing director Joshua
Chirikutsi brief the mines and energy Parliamentary portfolio about what they
intended to construct and what is already achieved on the Gwanda solar project
in Gwanda yesterday.
Zimbabwe Power Company acting managing director Joshua
Chirikutsi brief the mines and energy Parliamentary portfolio about what they
intended to construct and what is already achieved on the Gwanda solar project
in Gwanda yesterday.
“There are so many anomalies that include lack of
expertise. The land tenure is also not there so how can you talk about owning
the project when you don’t even have the right documentation of owning the
land?,” he said.
“They (ZPC) and the Procurement Regulatory Authority of
Zimbabwe (formerly State Procurement Board) who awarded the tender are
appearing before the committee on the 14th of March and after that we will
submit our findings.
It emerged during a briefing before the tour yesterday that
the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement withdrew Intratek’s
application to lease the land due to the contractor’s failure to pay an annual
subscription fee of $15 000.
Mr Mliswa said the subscription fee was, however, paid by
ZPC and the power utility has applied to lease the land.
“There is no way such a project can go ahead without a
lease. So we are now asking ourselves
how in the first place he (Mr Chivayo) was given this project when he
did not have proper land documentation defining the tenure.
“We also have the (EIA) Environmental Impact Assessment from
EMA coming in, why was it issued a year later?” queried Mr Mliswa.
Responding to questions from the committee, ZPC acting
managing director Mr Josh Chirikutsi admitted that his organisation had not
done due diligence to ascertain if Intratek had proper documentation for the
land. “Basically, what we are saying is getting land for solar project, l was
trying to say it’s not a big challenge for us, Government will assist us to get
land. If Intratek were to chase us from here, we would find other land,” he said.
The committee argued that ZPC was supposed to secure its
documentation first before starting the project.
The committee has previously grilled Mr Chivayo over the
manner in which he won the tender for the project in 2013. Mr Chivayo has also
admitted that he was paid by the power utility without a bank guarantee
following the intervention of former Minister of Energy and Power Development
Dr Samuel Undenge.
The suspended ZPC managing director Noah Gwariro had
refused to pay him the money without the guarantee. Chronicle
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