Contractors rehabilitating roads in Harare have stopped
work after the Harare City Council delayed paying them despite the Zimbabwe
National Roads Administration (Zinara) availing the funds.
Bitumen World, which is carrying out most of the work under
the Government’s Emergency Roadworks Rehabilitation Project, said it was forced
to stop work this week as Harare City Council has failed to remit $4 million
allocated by Zinara.
In an interview yesterday, Harare City Council spokesperson
Mr Michael Chideme confirmed the delay in payments.
“There has been a delay, but it is administrative,” he
said. “Some of the contractors have asked for price variations. We are still
waiting for the approvals to pay the new prices from the relevant authorities.
We have communicated the same to the contractors.”
Mr Chideme said the matter was “receiving due attention”. “As you are aware, there is the issue of escalating
prices,” he said.
“Some of the contractors are importing bitumen from outside
the country and they are expecting to be paid at the obtaining rate of the US
dollar, so the escalations have to be approved and we are awaiting for the
necessary approvals from the relevant authorities because we do not want to do
short cuts and we need to follow procedures.”
But Bitumen finance director Mr Devilious Sibanda accused
city authorities of being insincere and giving flimsy reasons to delay the
payments.
“At times we are told we have used the wrong rates in their
adjudication process, yet this is done after Zinara has approved our papers,”
he said.
“Of late, the audit department has even told us that our
tax clearance certificate is not valid
despite the fact that this was a document that was issued by a
Government department, Zinara.
“The truth is that they are really putting so much spanners
that you wonder if they really want us to execute these works.”
Mr Sibanda said the company could no longer do any works as
it had run out of working capital. Herald
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