Parliament’s full report on the Chivayo Gwanda solar project

When the Committee asked Mr. Chivayo if Intratrek won the project on merit, he responded confidently that Intratrek deserved the award. This was in contradiction to Mr. Chivayo’s earlier statements where he mentioned he sought to get the award because Intratrek was an indigenous company. In his own words Mr. Chivayo stated “This is why I was awarded, it was not about being local, it was about the company that was going to come in and install.  Have you ever done projects of this magnitude?  It was not about me it was about Chint Electric, it has done over 4 000 megawatts in solar farms right around the world, including China and more than 56 countries….”

The Committee also noted with concern that there was bad blood between the shareholders in Intratrek.  Mr. Tokwe, a lawyer representing one of the shareholders Mr. Yusuf, told the Committee that Mr. Chivayo was no longer a shareholder in the company because he ceded his shares against a loan he had borrowed.  Mr. Chivayo’s capacity to run the company was also put on the spotlight.  Mr. Tokwe told the Committee that Mr. Chivayo “…..has never respected the corporate governance issues that related to the management of companies. That is precisely why we are here today because the shareholders have said this project is not moving, we are concerned and we risk our names being tainted…..” It was abundantly clear to the Committee that ZPC has no reason to continue doing business with a company that was fractured and dysfunctional.

3.3    The Contractual Agreement between ZPC and Intratrek

ZPC entered into a contractual agreement with Intratrek Zimbabwe with its technical Partner, Chint Electric Company on the 23rd of October 2015.  The total project cost was estimated at just over 183million dollars.  The Committee noted that one of the contentious issues in the contract relates to schedule 11 which touches on pre-commencement activities. The activities were pegged at 7 million dollars, of which ZPC was to contribute about 6 million and Intratrek contributing the balance of one million dollars. The initial works were identified as follows:

ZPC was obliged to provide an advance payment to Intratrek on condition that “a bank guarantee shall be provided against this payment”. During different oral evidence sessions with ZPC and Mr. Chivayo, the Committee learnt that a sum of $5 644 130.80 for pre-commencement work was released by ZPC to Intratrek, without a bank guarantee. The Finance Director, for ZPC Mr. Chiwara, submitted a file with evidence of payments made to Intratrek.  The entire money was released within a period of six months from December 2015 to July 2016.  When the Committee conducted an on-site visit on the 28th of February 2018, it was shocked to find that the works on site were a far cry of the disbursements made and the timelines outlined in the contract. ZPC officials even acknowledged that the works on site were not commensurate with the payments.

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