A FIVE-MEMBER integrity panel set up by MDC leader Nelson
Chamisa last year to probe corrupt activities involving party deployees in
local authorities will target Harare City Council as its first assignment,
investigating all the deals entered into by the opposition-run municipality.
Addressing journalists yesterday, the integrity and
accountability panel chairman, Advocate Thabani Mpofu said his panel would
recommend prosecution for criminal conduct not only in the MDC-run councils,
but all tiers of government the party members are deployed.
Mpofu said his panel would not be averse to co-operation
with government institutions such as the police, the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption
Commission and the National Prosecuting Authority, but where those institutions
would have failed to co-operate the panel would consider other legal means
provided by the law.
“We will, in the coming weeks, turn our attention to the
City of Harare. We intend to deal in the first instance with all the contracts,
running contracts, unclosed contract, to which the City of Harare is part,” he
said.
“We will look at the nature and number of contracts to
which the City of Harare is part to, the identities of the contractors, the
numbers by value, both in US dollar terms and in local dollar terms of the
amounts involved in the contracts, the manner the contracts were awarded and
the efficiency with which they are being performed, including the standard of
work discharged by the contracted companies.
“We want to establish whether the people of Harare are
receiving the benefits of those contracts.”
Last year, Chamisa formed the panel, which he said would
investigate allegations of corruption within MDC-run councils to foster a
culture of accountability and integrity.
The MDC controls the majority of urban local authorities in
the country.
The councils have been accused of corruption, with Zanu PF
using the allegations to discredit the opposition party’s ability to run the
affairs of the country. But last year, Chamisa said he would weed out corrupt
elements from the MDC.
Mpofu said the panel’s work won’t be a witch-hunting
exercise and will not be limited to councils only. Newsday
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