Harare City's dubious tent contract costs taxpayer...

Harare City's dubious tent contract costs taxpayers US$338,752

Nyashadzashe Ndoro

Chief Reporter

A controversial contract between the City of Harare and Platinum Resources (Pvt) Ltd for the supply, delivery, and installation of 38 tents has raised eyebrows over potential corruption and misuse of public funds.

In 2017, Platinum Resources was awarded the contract for US$338,752, with a two-week deadline to deliver and install the tents. However, despite receiving full payment, the company only managed to erect seven tents, citing unspecified reasons beyond their control.

The City of Harare's Department of Works was mysteriously excluded from the tender process, leading to the omission of critical technical specifications from the agreement. This has sparked concerns about the integrity of the procurement process and whether proper protocols were followed.

"According to the Director of Works in a departmental memorandum dated 12 March 2018, the fabrication of the steel frame structure exhibited poor standard of workmanship.

"The Director of Works alluded that the technical specification of the tent fabric and steel frame superstructure was not included in the agreement between City of Harare and Platinum Resources Pvt Ltd due to non-involvement of the Department of Works in the tender process. Poor workmanship in the jointing of the steel structure means City of Harare cannot derive any meaningful value for money even for a temporary structure in the CBD," read part of the documents seen by ZimNow.

This publication understands that the commission of inquiry set up by President Emmerson Mnangagwa to probe operations at the Harare City Council since 2017, is asking questions about how Platinum Resources was selected for the contract, and whether there were any undue influences or favoritism at play.

ZimNow reached out to the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission to confirm if they are investigating the matter. However, ZACC did not respond to the questions sent to them.

Last week, this publication exposed how the City of Harare lost nearly half a million dollars in a questionable contract with Synlak Pvt Ltd, a firm linked to notorious businessmen Mike Chimombe and Moses Mpofu, for the removal and replacement of a crematorium at Warren Hills.

Despite minimal progress on the project, the City of Harare had paid Synlak US$494,270 by August 2017, with only 0.1% of the work completed by September 2017.

The payments made were not proportionate to the work done, and there was no evidence of communication between the project implementing department and the Finance Department when payments were made. Synlak failed to deliver the crematorium unit as agreed in the contract despite receiving significant payments.

This is not the first instance of non-delivery by Synlak, as they had an outstanding contract for a biogas digester project that was yet to be completed.

The matter is currently being investigated by the ZACC. Chimombe and Mpofu are currently in jail over two corruption-related cases, including the presidential goat scheme and the US$9.2 million streetlights corruption scandal, which has seen six Harare City Council officials, including Town Clerk Hosiah Chisango, being imprisoned.