Univern: Untendered 40 Motor Graders
116 On the15th March 2013, after a presentation by the Chairperson of the board’ s technical committee, the ZINARA Board took a decision to purchase forty (40) additional motor graders and sought approval from the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development.
117 On 23 April 2013, the then Secretary for Transport and Infrastructural Development, Mr. M. Munodawafa wrote back to Mr. Frank Chitukutuku expressing the Ministry’s concerns on the condition that the procurement process was not in compliance with the State Procurement Board requirements.
118 Contrary to the provisions of Section 5 of the Procurement Regulations published as Statutory Instrument 171 of 2002, ZINARA did not go to tender and instead awarded the contract to Univern.
119 The auditors established that there was no written agreement executed between ZINARA and Univern in respect of these forty (40) additional graders. According to the Forensic Audit Report, representations were made by ZINARA to the State Procurement Board on the 7th of August 2014 wherein condonation was sought for the failure to tender. ZINARA indicated that the terms and conditions for the additional forty (40) graders were similar to the original forty (40) tendered graders.
120 The Forensic Audit Report in paragraph 10.19 on page 79, makes the claim that condonation was granted by SPB for the purchase of these forty (40) additional graders. They make reference to annexure 15 in their bundle of documents, which is a letter dated 8 April 2016, reference SPB/C/24 addressed to ZINARA and granting condonation for a different contract being the Public Private Partnership agreement on Computerisation on Motor Vehicle Licencing and Revenue Collection systems, which this report deals with below.
121 The Committee, therefore, establishes as a matter of fact that there was no tender, nor condonation in respect of the purchase of the additional forty (40) motor graders.
122 The Committee is fortified in this position by the oral evidence provided for by Mr. Taranhike, the then Finance Director of ZINARA. In his oral testimony before the Committee, he admitted that a tender was not issued but pleaded that ZINARA got authority from the Ministry.
123 However, as the Committee has established above, Mr. Munodawafa’s letter of 12 April 2013 made it clear that ZINARA had to abide by the country’s procurement laws.
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