The two officials were arrested last Thursday and appeared
before Tsholotsho magistrate Mr Thomas Gurejena on Saturday.
They were each remanded out of custody to January 5 on $1,2
million bail.
The two were further ordered to report at ZRP Tsholotsho
once on the last Friday of the fortnight, surrender their passports and not to
interfere with investigations, evidence and witnesses.
The two were also ordered to reside at their given
addresses.
According to court papers, Mr Sibanda and Mr Malandule, who
are both responsible for procuring goods and services for the council and its
arms, awarded a borehole drilling contract to Makhado Marketing without
following the proper procedures and approval of the council.
Sibanda was the one who single-handedly gave Makhado
Marketing the contract, the court heard.
Sometime around October 2019, read the court papers,
Tsholotsho RDC through Sibanda as the accounting officer and without obtaining
an exemption from the Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe to engage in
direct procurement, hand-picked Makhado Marketing for surveying, sighting and
drilling a hundred-metre deep borehole and fitting services.
Subsequently, on October 15, 2019, Tsholotsho RDC entered
into a contract with Makhado Marketing for surveying, siting, drilling a
100-metre borehole and installation of cylinder complete with foot valves and
bush pumps valued at $164 260.
Clauses 19.1 to 24.2 of the contract outlined that the
commencement of the services was supposed to be on the 17th of October 2019 and
be completed by the 27th of November 2019.
The payment terms were agreed as 30 percent to be paid upon
signing of the contract which is 15 October 2019, another 30 percent upon
completion of drilling, and the balance of 40 percent upon complete
installation and approvals by the Council Technical Services department and the
District Development Fund department.
Investigations that followed established that soon after
the signing of the contract, Makhado Marketing just drilled about 20 metres
deep and informed the Council that their drilling machine had broken down.
It was further established that contrary to the terms
agreed in the said contract, Sibanda, without lawful explanation, authorised
the processing of payments of the full cost of the borehole drilling and
installation well before the contractor completed the drilling of the borehole
as follows: $49 278,00 being the first
30 percent payment was processed on October 18.
Prosecutor, Ms Sheila Mpofu said Sibanda as the accounting
officer of Tsholotsho RDC, who had the duty to procure goods and services for
Tsholotsho RDC in line with the provisions of the Public Procurement and
Disposable of Public Assets Act Chapter 22:23, acted contrary and inconsistent
with his duties by hand-picking Makhado Marketing without following proper
tender procedures.
Malandule, who had the duty to monitor the use of resources
in pursuit of defined objectives of the Council, to ensure all expenditure is
as per budget and exercising due diligence before effecting payments to avoid
financial losses to the Council allegedly acted contrary and inconsistent with
his duties as the Treasurer of Tsholotsho RDC by effecting payments to Makhado
Marketing without exercising due diligence.
“By so doing, the accused persons showed favour to Makhado
Marketing by hand-picking it without going to tender or using the request for
quotation method of procurement and paying full cost price of borehole
surveying, siting, drilling and installation of cylinder complete with foot
valves and bush pumps well knowing that Makhado Marketing had not yet performed
its contractual obligations thereby putting Tsholotsho RDC on high risk of
unnecessary sunk costs,” reads the state papers. Chronicle
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