Binga Rural District Council (Binga RDC)
- On 29 September 2010, a contract was signed between Binga RDC and one of Twalumba Holdings’ Enterprises, Attachards.
- The auditors established that in a meeting of the Roads and Works Committee of the Binga RDC held on 29 December 2011, it was recorded “ … that Twalumba Civils Engineering, (trading as Attachards) under Twalumba Holdings be given the job to construct and or maintain roads at Binga Centre if the proposed funding was received from ZINARA.”
- Notwithstanding that the contract price was for US$1 587 761.30, there was no compliance with the procurement law as the tender board was not involved.
- The auditors raised an issue with the fact that Binga RDC awarded a contract to Attachards when Attachards did not have any financial statements nor any documents to prove a track record in construction.
- Consistent with the record of Twalumba shown above, there was also no performance under this contract. On 3 June 2013, Mr. Benjamin Utete of Binga RDC wrote a letter to the site manager of Attachards, on behalf of the CEO of Binga RDC expressing concern that Attachards had demobilised part of the plant that had been mobilised for the project without the consent of the Council.
- On 16 January 2014, Attachards responded and admitted to not having done much work on the project. They highlighted that they were experiencing financial constraints.
- On 14 May 2014, Binga RDC notified ZINARA of the termination of the Attachards Contract for Binga Special Projects. Part of the letter read as follows: “After the award of the contract, the Contractor managed to mobilise and did 1km of road construction. We then processed payments for the works done after certification from both council and ZINARA…. His execution speed thereafter deteriorated until he was way out of the agreed timeframe. After council made several frantic efforts to speed up the process… to no avail, we finally had no other option except to terminate the contract which was done on the 8th May 2014…ZINARA was advised of the termination and request for authority to engage another contractor to which the response was that this facility for special projects had been suspended…”.
- Attachards did not perform its part of this contract and the Auditors established that the total financial prejudice to ZINARA was a sum of USD72 000.
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