Harare City Council (HCC) is reeling from yet another
controversy after an internal audit unearthed a major scandal through which
some road contractors engaged to rehabilitate 43 selected roads in the capital
were paid despite “the fact that absolutely no works had been done”.
It is believed that council’s department of works even had
the audacity to present fraudulent progress reports in order to renew contracts
for some of the companies.
Documents obtained by The Sunday Mail indicate that the
scam was exposed when the city’s procurement unit insisted on an inspection of
the roads that were purportedly under construction.
In one of the most glaring cases, City of Harare’s
department of works allegedly misrepresented that Fossil Construction — one of
the biggest contractors — had rehabilitated 1,2 kilometres (15 percent) of Kelvin South Road in
Graniteside when works had not even begun.
After discovering the anomaly, the procurement division
subsequently wrote a letter to town clerk Engineer Hosiah Chisango on July 5
this year to alert him about the discrepancy.
“The constitution of the 15 percent completion could not be
explained, with the responsible engineer Mkombeza stating that he exaggerated
the percentage as he claimed that there was work done, which he failed to
identify, and (we) asked that the road be removed from the list of extension or
he writes a report on that,” reads part of the letter.
“In light of the fact that absolutely no works had been
done on the road, which had been given 15 percent completion, coupled with the
fact that the engineer stated that he probably exaggerated the percentage, it
would then leave a lot of questions on all stages of completion on all other
roads on the report . . . with the probability of exaggeration clearly
manifested.”
The scope of works on Kelvin South Road included reclaiming
250mm of existing road, adding 150mm gravel (stabilise), prime and 25mm asphalt
concrete surfacing.
Further, the contractor was expected to upgrade storm water
drainage and put road markings, signs and cat eyes.
In a letter dated July 8 2019, HCC’s audit manager Mr
Archibald Nyamurova was particularly scathing on the department of works.
“Kelvin South Road was not rehabilitated to 15 percent
stage of completion as was indicated by the department of works when it
submitted information to the supply chain manager for purposes of renewing
contracts,” it reads.
“There were no materials on site to show that Fossil
Construction ever attempted to rehabilitate Kelvin South Road.”
Mr Nyamurova then recommended that Fossil Construction
contract be cancelled while an audit of all the 43 roads under rehabilitation
be done before any of the contractors are given new jobs.
“An external engineer should be contracted by council to
assess the stage of completion of uncompleted roads, taking into account
materials used and funds already paid to contractors,” he said.
Overall, Fossil Construction was paid $1,7 million of the
$7,4 million council paid to contractors for various road works.
Head of HCC’s department of works Engineer Isaiah Zvenyika
Chawatama confirmed that his department had cooked figures as it sought to
renew contracts.
“Such a situation arose that progress update figures did
not tally with physical works. It was an error by one of our engineers; he just
plugged in figures, you know. He didn’t mean any mischief,” he told The Sunday
Mail.
“We have extended the contracts to June 2020 to allow the
contractors to finish works. We are now going on the ground,” he said.
The local authority’s new scandal comes barely a month
after Government released more than $214 million to extricate the capital from
a serious water crisis.
The facilities were released to help pay off debts for
water treatment chemicals and rehabilitate the city’s water works.
Government has since ordered a forensic audit to establish
the root cause of the paralysis in service delivery, particularly the inability
to supply residents with potable water, which is putting lives at risk.
Minister of State for Harare Provincial Affairs Oliver
Chidawu told The Sunday Mail there is a “management crisis” at the local
authority.
“Government has allocated funds to the city to help with
the water crisis and this means some projects will be stalled or temporarily
shelved,” said Minister Chidawu.
“So we are now looking at ways of how to come up with
long-term solutions to the problem, and we have asked the Harare City Council
to do an audit on their revenue streams.
“We feel there is a management crisis at the City of Harare
and that is why we need to have an audit to see how revenue is being used, how
it can be used going forward and how it can help with service delivery.”
Government has also made a commitment to provide technical
support once the audit is completed.
HCC Mayor Councillor Hebert Gomba said the planned forensic
audit will help city fathers to chart their service delivery mandate.
“We will soon be flighting a tender for the external
auditing firm.
“The findings will help us on our service delivery mandate,
and we will also be doing a skills audit to help us to do away with practices
and individuals that stand in the way of progress, and ensure that we put in
place robust systems.”
City of Harare’s revenue collections are currently
plummeting as a result of the billing crisis.
The rollout of the new billing system, Sage Evolution, has
been affected by system glitches which are seriously inconveniencing
ratepayers.
Council decided to source a new software after it severed
ties with South African company Quill Associates in March after the latter
increased licence fees for its BIQ system.
Since then, ratepayers have been unable to both enquire
account balances and receive bill statements.
The Sunday Mail witnessed long queues at some council
offices in the capital as service was slow.
Harare Residents Trust (HRT) director Mr Precious Shumba
said residents were worried about the absence of a credible billing system.
“We have realised that the city does not have a
consolidated billing system. They are unable to access previous data from
accounts. Late August, residents received bills that were exaggerated.
“This destroys any chances of financial recovery and
eventually leads to the city failing to deliver. We continue the process of
engaging them,” he said.
However, Mayor Gomba said the hiccups were part of teething
problems that were not uncommon for new systems.
“We have a new system which was approved by Praz
(Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe); it is called a CCG system and
it complies with the Public Finance Management Act and has new ways of checking
account balances that the previous system could not. We procured it from a
local company, which is working with internationally recognised companies. The
same system is also being used in Chitungwiza,” said Cllr Gomba.
“We are in transition; glitches happen. We have given the
supplier up to the end of this month, when they have finished fully installing
it, to see if it works well,” he said.
The Harare mayor said data was preserved during the transition
from the BIQ system. Sunday Mail
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