Health and Child Care Minister Obadiah Moyo was arrested
yesterday by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc) over his alleged
involvement in NatPharm’s unprocedural contract with Drax International LLC to
supply medicines and surgical sundries.
He spent last night at Rhodesville Police Station in
eastern Harare and is expected to appear in court today.
His arrest followed the arrest of three NatPharm bosses
this week on charges of criminal abuse of office for approving the deal with
Drax, now known as Drax Consult SAGL after a name change, without following
laid down procurement procedures.
Drax representative Delish Nguwaya has since been charged
in court over the deal, which has already been cancelled on the orders of the
Ministry of Finance and Economic Development.
Zacc spokesperson Commissioner John Makamure confirmed the
arrest of Dr Moyo but did not give details of the allegations he was facing. “I
can confirm the arrest of Minister Moyo. He will be detained at Rhodesville
Police Station and he is most likely to appear in court tomorrow,” said Comm
Makamure.
Sources close to investigations said Dr Moyo was invited to
Zacc headquarters on Wednesday to record statements before he was released to
allow investigators to study the documents further, investigations that led to
yesterday’s arrest.
Comm Makamure said Zacc was looking at procurement systems
and procedures of supply of medicines and equipment to fight Covid-19 to
establish compliance with laid down procedures.
“We are looking at the whole procurement system for
Covid-19 to establish systems compliance in handling and managing both
procurements and donations. We have two processes: the investigation arm and
another comprising our officers carrying out review of the whole procurement
system to ensure compliance. This is being done with a view to making
recommendations on how it can be improved,” said Comm Makamure.
“Where a crime is suspected to have been committed, our
investigation arm will come in. We have officers looking at the whole
procurement processes in an emergency such as Covid-19.”
The arrest of Dr Moyo followed the charges against Natpharm
bosses, managing director Florah Nancy Sifeku (67), operations manager Charles
Mwaramba (78) and finance manager Rolland Mlalazi (55) who appeared at the
Harare Magistrates’ Courts.
They were not asked to plead to the charges of criminal
abuse of office when they separately appeared before magistrate Ms Vongai
Guriro, who remanded them all to July 3 on $10 000 bail each.
Sifeku and Mwaramba are jointly charged on one of the
offences where the State alleges that they disregarded a directive from
Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health and Child Care to go for tender
but instead fast-tracked an order to Drax to supply medicines and surgical
sundries, on the grounds that there was extreme emergency.
Drax had written a letter of interest to supply Zimbabwe
with medicine and surgical sundries under a US$20 million facility.
The two allegedly withheld the tender documents for a
month, while they were processing another order for the same company under the
loan facility. They are alleged to have used the tender and order to award and
sign a contract for Drax.
Drax is said to have put up US$2,7 million of which US$2
million out of the total amount was for performance guarantee after it failed
to secure one from European banks. After realising that Drax had failed to
supply the medicine and sundries within three months as agreed in the contract,
Sifeku and Mwaramba allegedly deliberately failed to cancel the contract for
non-performance.
On a second matter in which Sifeku and Mlalazi are jointly
charged, the State alleges that early this year, Health Minister Moyo was
approached by Delish Nguwaya and lawyer Dedja, who introduced themselves to him
as Drax’s country representative and legal representativ.
Nguwaya and Dedja are said to have tendered an expression
of interest, saying their company had the capacity to supply medicines to
Zimbabwe through a US$40 million loan facility.
Minister Moyo is said to have asked the then permanent
secretary Dr Agnes Mahomva to process the offer. But Dr Mahomva advised Sifeku
and Mlalazi to procure the medicines according to the proper procurement
procedures.
The State alleges that knowing that Drax International LLC
had changed its name to Drax Consult SAGL, and knowing that it was previously
known as Papi Pharma and had failed the vetting process, Sifeku and Mlalazi
went on to offer it another order to supply US$13 351 071 worth of medicines.
On April 9, 2020, permanent secretary in the Ministry of
Finance Mr George Guvamatanga wrote to Dr Mahomva after noting that Sifeku and
Mlalazi had entered into an agreement with Drax.
Dr Mahomva, on the following day, said the Ministry had not
given NatPharm the green light to sign the contract. Herald
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