Univern’s Service Contracts
125 On 29 July 2013 a service level agreement was executed between ZINARA and Univern, being the agreement that Univern had anticipated in Clause 4 of the Purchase Agreement mentioned above. The service level agreement is attached as Annexure 16 in Volume 1 of the Forensic Audit Report.
126 The service level agreement gave exclusive monopoly to Univern of repairing the graders at fees and rates determined by Univern.
127 Furthermore, all repairs were to be done in Harare, with Univern arranging for the transport for any vehicle requiring workshop assistance at ZINARA’s expense.
128 Despite the existence of the warranty on the machines described above and despite the fact that the machines were only delivered from June 2013, huge amounts of money were paid to Univern for repairs. Between 2013 and the first 4 months of 2015. The following amounts were paid by ZINARA:
- In 2013, USD 618 000;
- In 2014, USD 3 300 000; and
- In the first four (4) months of 2015, USD 1 300 000.
129 The above costs were submitted by the Chairman of the board’s technical committee on 15 May. The minutes of that board meeting are found as Annexure 19 of Volume 1 of the Forensic Audit Report.
130 The board itself, in its deliberations expressed great disquiet and unhappiness with the service level agreement and the associated costs. The following points were made:
- “………..The graders were bought using the allocations meant to be disbursed to Road Authorities”;
- “The cost of maintenance at three million three hundred thousand dollars ($3 300 000. 00) is very high as the organization can purchase more than 10 new graders with the same value”;
- “…………There is need to interrogate the persons who sign off for the fault reports at the road authorities and the person who acknowledges that the work has been done”; and
- “………….Road authorities have capacity to maintain graders.”
- The board recommended that “……ZINARA should analyse and probe the cost of maintenance and service delivery.”
- A review of the board minutes of the meeting held on 19 December 2014 revealed that the Finance Chairman advised the board that …”graders are not incorporated in ZINARA’s balance sheet nor the road authorities’ balance sheets …..”
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