The Legality of the Agreements
- All public procurements in Zimbabwe are done subject to the procurement laws of this country. The relevant Act at the time of procurement was the Procurement Act [Chapter 22:40]. Part IV of this Act provides for a competitive process of public tendering.
- Section 31 of the Act describes the tendering process which include among other things:
- the invitation through the Government gazette to suppliers to tender;
- qualification processes; and
- the deadline for the tenders.
- The Procurement Act is complemented by the Procurement Regulations, S.I. 171 of 2002. The Procurement Regulations define the elaborate and exhaustive tendering process in Zimbabwe.
- It is common cause that in all the three supply agreements covered in the written agreements discussed above, there was no compliance with the Procurement Act and the Procurement Regulations.
- The Committee emphasises that there were three distinct procurements that needed separate tendering and approval namely; the Motor Vehicle Licence contract, the Tolling contract and the Transit and Fuel Levy contract.
- On 14 March 2016, the Acting CEO of ZINARA Mr. M. Juma wrote a letter to the State Procurement Board asking for “regularisation of ZINARA and Univern PPP Agreement on Computerisation of Revenue Collection Systems”. The same letter represented to the SPB that ZINARA was paying commission to Univern as follows:
- Vehicle Licensing 18.5% (VAT exclusive)
- Tolling 12.5% (VAT exclusive)
- Transit 15.7% (VAT exclusive).
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