In 2016 council purchased 545 drums of bitumen from said
contractor and since then the consignment is yet to be delivered while no
recoveries have been made on part of the local authority.
In Auditor General (AG) Mildred Chiri’s 2020 Report, the AG
found that by the time of her audit August 2021 council was yet to recover
anything from the supplier.
“The Council purchased five hundred and forty-five (545)
drums of bitumen from Podilla Ventures (Private) Limited in 2016 valued at
US$137 713. However, the bitumen had not been delivered and the money paid had
not been recovered by the time of my audit in August 2021.
“My enquiries with management revealed that a High Court
judgement was given in favor of the Council but the Master of the High Court
was facing challenges to serve the supplier with a warrant of execution,” read
the AG’s report.
Town Clerk Engineer Edward Mukaratirwa said a High Court
judgement was given in favour of council and a messenger of court was sent to
the company with the papers of litigation only to find empty offices.
“The issue was taken to court and the case was finalised,
with the judgement given in our favour. A messenger of court then went with
lawsuit papers to the company but the company was no longer at the given
address.
“So we have now gone to the company registrar’s offices to
try and locate them and if they are registered under a new name we can be able
to find them and get our compensation as they have all the records there,” said
Mukaratirwa.
A Google search of the company indicates that Podilla
Ventures is a Mining and Construction equipment company that specializes on
pothole patching and machines, earthmoving machines, survey and geo testing
equipment, bituminous products, thermoplastic and cold plastic road marking
paint, line marking machines located on 33 Dan Jadson Harare, Zimbabwe.
This is not the first time Masvingo City Council has
inadvertently awarded a tender to questionable contractors after Mutual
Construction company which benefitted from a confirmed US$4 million from
council coffers failed to deliver on the prolonged Mucheke Trunk Sewer project
which is yet to be completed, way behind schedule but continuously recurs on
annual budgets.
The construction company later on withdrew their services
and left the site in 2014 after barely a quarter of the job was done. TellZimNews
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