LOCAL Government minister July Moyo and Harare Metropolitan
Provincial Affairs minister Oliver Chidawu have been implicated in a massive
tender scandal at Harare City Council (HCC) after they allegedly directed the
local authority to award a multi-million dollar water treatment contract to two
separate companies without following laid down procedure, it has emerged.
The contract is for the supply of water treatment
technology solutions to Harare, which is struggling to supply the city of three
million residents with safe drinking water.
Currently, council is using nine chemicals to treat water
which is heavily polluted with domestic and industrial effluent at a monthly
cost of US$3 million.
The local authority has had to frequently shut down its main
treatment plant, Morton Jaffray Water Works, due to a shortage of foreign
currency to import the required chemicals.
Official documents, corroborated by information obtained
from both council and government sources, indicate that the two ministers are
separately exerting intense pressure on City of Harare management to disregard
an ongoing tender process and have the contract awarded to their preferred
companies.
The issue has since become the subject of a corruption
investigation by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc) after one of
the companies reported the case to the anti-graft body on Tuesday.
Moyo is pushing for Boltgas, a Zimbabwean-owned company
founded in South Africa in 2005, to be awarded the contract.This is despite the
fact that the company was not among 10 firms which responded to a tender
invitation for the project in June this year. Chidawu is rooting for South
African firm Nanotech Water Africa Private Limited (Nanotech).
However, Nanotech — like all the other bidders — initially
failed to make the grade, but is now poised to clinch the tender following
Chidawu’s intervention.
Documents indicate that after the bidding closed on June
20, Harare City Council’s evaluation committee deliberated on all submissions
and found out that none of them were suitable.
This was revealed in a letter by town clerk Hosiah Chisango
to Procurement Regulation Authority of Zimbabwe (Praz) chief executive officer
Nyasha Chizu.
Chisango, in the letter, particularly stated that
Nanotech’s bid had been thrown out because it was not competitive.
For instance, Nanotech’s proposed technology reduced the
cost of water treatment by just US$780 000. This implies that the monthly cost
of treating Harare water would be pegged at US$2,2 million, which the evaluation
committee still found to be too high.
Nanotech also fell short in terms of references as it had
only one project it undertook in Botswana, raising competence concerns. “The
evaluation committee recommended that Praz approves the cancellation of the
expression of interest for lack of competition and for technical
irregularities,” reads Chisango’s letter to Chizu, dated August 5.
Chisango, in his letter, also raised the red flag over the
possibility that Nanotech was accorded preferential treatment. Nanotech had
been engaged by the city’s water department to conduct a pre-test three months
ahead of the invitation to tender.
“The committee was convinced the specifications were not
neutral and the playing field was not level as other players went into the race
with an advantage after having been afforded the opportunity to pre-test their
solutions before being made to compete with others who did not get the same
opportunity. Their specifications, thus, were tailored towards the solutions
provided by those that presided over the solutions,” he wrote.
There is however no record of Praz’s response to Chisango’s
correspondence. Upon learning of the development, Chidawu summoned Harare mayor
Herbert Gomba, Chisango and City of Harare supply chain manager Never Murerwa
and other senior managers from the local authority to a meeting at his offices
at Charter House in Harare’s central business district where he piled pressure
on them to bypass the legally permitted procurement procedures and award the
tender to Nanotech, claiming the issue was coming from “higher office”.
However, Chisango failed to turn up for the meeting. Gomba
attended, but abstained from the ensuing deliberations, leaving everything to
city officials, arguing that since he was only a ceremonial mayor, he did not
want to interfere in the day-to-day activities of Town House.
City officials reportedly asked Chidawu to put his demands
in writing, but the minister strongly objected to this and said if they were
not keen on following his instructions, he would not hesitate to directly
engage Chizu and ask for a waiver of the formal tendering process in terms of
Section 54 of the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Act, which
provides for that waiver in case of emergency. At that time, Harare City
Council had approached the government, seeking a declaratory order classifying
its water situation as a state of emergency.
Curiously, 30 days later, on September 5, Chisango wrote
again to Chizu, this time requesting permission to withdraw his earlier
correspondence.
“The Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe received
a report from City of Harare on the 14th of August on the cancellation of the
request for expression of interest. This letter therefore serves to withdraw
that report so that pertinent additional information is included and will be
resubmitted thereafter,” Chisango wrote.
He followed that up with another letter six days later, in
which he was now asking Praz to consider proposals from four of the 10 bidders
despite having clearly stated that they had failed to satisfy tender
adjudicators. He claimed the new position arose because the evaluation committee
had subsequently reconvened and resolved to shortlist four bidders, namely
Nanotech, Water Dimensions International, Aqua Global and Microlab Scientific.
Documents also show the emergence at this stage of a
special procurement oversight committee (SPOC) set up by Praz to take the place
of Harare City Council’s conventional tender evaluation committee. In the
particular correspondence, Chisango dramatically somersaulted and claimed the
four companies had “offered a water treatment solution and had adequate
manpower to carry the required work.”
This time, Chizu, in a letter dated September 24, 2019,
approved the new position. “The authority is hereby directing the accounting
officer to re-evaluate the tender and make recommendations in line with the
observations and requirements of the standard bidding document and submit the
revised evaluation report and bids for review by the SPOC,” Chizu wrote.
Oddly, it also appears from the documents that there is
lack of consensus among city officials, with acting Harare water director
Mabhena Moyo writing to Chidawu, instead of Chisango, in which he apparently
canvassed for Nanotech.
“A report was written to Praz seeking approval for the city
to go ahead with the project with the four companies. A report to Praz
recommending that it approves four companies to carry out a pilot project at
Morton Jaffray after re-evaluation of the companies is to be prepared. However,
it would be prudent and faster to commence with the pilot project with Nanotech
who are ready to start,” reads Moyo’s letter, dated October 7, 2019.
Chisango, on November 13, then wrote to some of the
companies involved, informing them that their bids had been unsuccessful,
without specifying who had won the tender.
Microlab objected to the move, alleging the process was
biased and claimed the tender had been awarded to Nanotech.“Your handling of
this tender process was biased towards Nanotech from the onset as Nanotech went
into the competition with an unfair advantage, rendering the specifications to
be not neutral.
The specifications were tailored to suit Nanotech and this
smacks of corruption at its worst. We are also aware that the initial
evaluation committee strongly advised against awarding the tender to Nanotech
only for the report to be withdrawn from Praz after submission.”
“It is not only unfair but flagrant corruption to proceed
with this process in the current form. Nanotech has connections with those in
high offices and this is now standing as their only qualification,” Microlab
wrote through its managing director Walter Jera on November 19.
This time, it was Murerwa who responded to Microlab,
writing: “Please take note that the matter was considered by the SPOC. This
letter also serves to advise you that the bid from Nanotech Water Solutions P/L
was accepted to proceed to the next level. Be guided accordingly.”Jera on
Tuesday filed a corruption report to Zacc. The case was filed under RRB number
369602/05/08/14.
Chidawu confirmed he called city officials to a meeting,
but claimed he did so on request by the provincial Joint Operations Command
(Joc) which he chairs.
“The meeting was called by the provincial Joint Operations
Command, worried by the deteriorating water situation in the country which had
become a security threat,” he said in an interview.
On allegations he pressured council officials to accept the
Nanotech bid, Chidawu, himself a former Harare mayor, said: “I only recommended
Nanotech on the basis that its proposal seemed to offer the right solutions
and, in so doing, I was communicating a security resolution of the provincial
Joc. So I did not pressure them,” he said.
Gomba also confirmed he went to the minister’s office in
September along with city officials, but denied playing any role.“Councillors
are not involved in tenders, we are legislated out of it. Tenders are done by
the supply chain manager under the town clerk and then sent to Praz for
approval. Council only receives reports to note. Yes, I attended (the meeting)
but played no part,” he said.
Chisango’s mobile phone was not being answered when the
Zimbabwe Independent sought his comment yesterday while WhatsApp messages sent
to him were not responded to despite evidence that he read them. Council
sources also said that on Tuesday this week July Moyo called a meeting at his
offices over the issue and indicated that he wanted Boltgas to be part of the
deal despite the fact that it had not participated in the tendering process.
Moyo could not be reached for comment as he was unreachable on mobile phone.
Zimbabwe Independent
0 comments:
Post a Comment