GOVERNMENT early this month went out of its way to
authorise payment of nearly US$1 million for a consignment of COVID-19
equipment at an inflated cost from a company linked to President Emmerson
Mnangagwa’s son, Collins, leaked official documents have shown.
A leaked memo to former Health permanent secretary Agnes
Mahomva from her Finance counterpart George Guvamatanga dated May 8, showed
government gave preferential treatment to Drax International to deliver a
consignment valued at US$987 720.
Drax is owned by Delish Nguwaya and his business partner,
Collins Mnangagwa. Nguwaya, who is well known for name-dropping, has been in
and out of the courts facing charges of fraud and extortion committed while
impersonating as a police officer or Central Intelligence Organisation officer.
The order by Guvamatanga was notwithstanding his earlier
order to Mahomva on April 28 to terminate contracts of all suppliers of
medicines and all surgical sundries force majeure to “mitigate against
escalation in the amount of debt to the said suppliers which Treasury is
clearly now not going to be able to meet”.
But in the Drax deal, Guvamatanga directed Mahomva that he
was “exceptionally authorising” the release of the Drax consignment at the
Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport in Harare.
He ordered Mahomva to disregard his earlier blanket
moratorium of April 28 and implement a special dispensation for Drax, claiming
there was an urgent need for test kits to be used in the country’s fight
against COVID-19.
“In this regard and given the urgent need for the test
kits, Treasury is hereby exceptionally authorising the release of the above
consignment to ensure the items’ availability in the ongoing efforts to fight
the COVID-19 pandemic,” part of Guvamatanga’s memo read.
“Treasury will provide funding for the consignment guided
by the contract.”
Ministers Mthuli Ncube (Finance), Obadiah Moyo (Health) and
Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet, Misheck Sibanda, among others,
were copied.
According to Guvamatanga’s memo, the items held at the
airport included 5 040 N95 masks, to be procured at a cost of US$28 per unit,
15 000 COVID-19 test kits at US$34 each and 3 740 coveralls for US$90 each.
The masks, charged at a cost of US$28 each often cost about
US$5 per unit and could be less in Dubai, where Drax is registered, where
coveralls cost an average of US$30.
Rapid tests kits bought from a Namibian supplier, Jaji
Investments, cost US$15 each in March, according to an investigation by an
online publication, ZimLive.
Basing on the prices, Drax could make a profit of about
half a million US dollars from the consignment.
Quizzed on the pricing by Drax in Parliament yesterday,
Industry and Commerce minister Sekai Nzenza said government was in a hurry to
purchase the items and, thus, had no time to compare prices.
“At first, we were in a hurry to get tenders for COVID-19
personal protective equipment (PPE) and had no time to compare prices. However,
now we are able to compare prices and say it is too high,” she said.
But Guvamatanga, responding on Twitter, said: “This is a
misrepresentation of facts. The letter being quoted was specific to release of
test kits that were urgently required. The letter was also clear that no other
purchases could be made.”
In another tweet, the bureaucrat said: “It is true that we
authorised the release of 15 000 test kits that were at the airport. It is
false that a payment of US$1 million was authorised, neither was it paid nor
will it be paid.”
Information secretary Ndavaningi Mangwana rushed to clear
Mnangagwa, claiming it was through the President’s intervention that the deal
involving his son was halted.
“I understand that when the President saw this in Cabinet,
he personally flagged it up and directed that no such payment should be made.
That payment was, therefore, not made. An audit was ordered and Zim Treasury
will issue a comprehensive statement on this,” Mangwana said.
Drax got registered as a government supplier after stating
its headquarters as Switzerland, but on its website, it says it was registered
in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, in 2020.
The company uses a bank account held with Bank One Limited
in Mauritius.
Drax International has signed deals with the government
worth over US$60 million for the supply of drugs to National Pharmaceuticals
(NatPharm), the State-owned drugs supplier.
The lucrative deal has been shrouded in secrecy and the
company did not go to tender to secure it.
Nguwaya is known for name-dropping Mnangagwa each time he
is implicated in fraud cases.
In March, he was pictured with Mnangagwa at State House
donating COVID-19 equipment worth around US$200 000.
Several pictures of the man, with a rich criminal record,
in the company of Mnangagwa’s sons have also gone viral.
Civic organisations have always complained over the secrecy
in which government was treating its COVID-19 expenditure, including donations
from wealthy benefactors across the globe.
Meanwhile, Godfrey Tsenengamu, the leader of the
newly-established Front for Economic Emancipation in Zimbabwe, yesterday wrote
to police seeking clearance to protest at the Finance ministry offices over the
Drax deal.
“This has been necessitated by the recent exposure of the
scandalous purchase of COVID-19 consumables involving the Finance ministry
permanent secretary George Guvamatanga and a company called Drax International
LLC,” Tsenengamu wrote to the police.
He pledged to field a 45-member team for the protest which
he said would respect all the COVID-19 lockdown measures. Newsday
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