Company chows easy government money, gets away with it

A company that was paid more than $300 000 by the government to install and commission four weigh bridges had not done so nearly three years after the deposit and no action was taken.

The auditor-general Mildred Chiri said in her latest report that she raised concern about the job, given to Applied Weighing Scales in her 2013 report but nothing was done.

The company was supposed to deliver, install and commission four weigh bridges in Harare, Gweru, Mutare and Masvingo by end of September 2014 at a total cost of $496 340.

It was paid a deposit of $312 694 in March 2013 but the company had not done the job as at 14 September 2015.

A  Ministry of Industry and Commerce official said the government had decided to engage the attorney-general’s office to sue to company for breach of contract but the auditor-general said nothing had been done to recover the deposit as at 19 November 2015.

The Applied Weighing Scales case was just another example of government wastage that is quite disturbing in view of the perennial cash shortage the State is facing.

The government paid $11.8 million to bail out Farmers World, a private company, whose owners no one knows.

It also invested $23 million into a private bank, Interfin, before it went into liquidation. The directors got away with it, though $100 million of depositors' funds disappeared.

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