Bulawayo residents oppose Amendment Bill

The BPRA says it will try to influence all residents to strongly oppose the new regulations when they are presented later this year before the sensitive issue goes to Parliament for final approval. In a document made available to The Zimbabwean, the BPRA, says it is very “much opposed” especially to Clauses 12, 18 and 19 of the Bill.

The BPRA says these clauses will “centralise the purchasing of equipment by councils” and thus allow room for massive corruption because they will be influenced by top politicians, mainly from the former ruling party, Zanu (PF), which tends to control them using its “wealthy” minister, Ignatious Chombo.

Chombo can hire or fire councils whenever he feels he is being undermined and when he “thinks” they have gained mileage especially if they are from MDC-T. He has fired Mayors from the MDC-T running urban councils in his ministry using the Urban Councils Act.

Chinamasa will introduce the Bill in Parliamant and then it will be deliberated and, if agreed upon, ratified into law. Under the old regulations, all ministries in need of goods or services had to go through the State Procurement Board while local authorities procured their goods through Municipal Procurement Boards as stipulated by the Urban Councils Act (Chapter 29:15).

BPRA said the implications of this amendment did “not bode well for residents, policy implementation and cities across Zimbabwe”.

It said “greedy politicians” would hijack the amendment and benefit themselves instead of the cash-strapped councils who are in desperate need of funds for their various projects. It pointed out that some top politicians, especially those from Zanu (PF) could “hood-wink” the “gullible” public and abuse funds used for paying for goods and services as has happened during many tenders proposed by councils.

The BPRA said centralising all procurement of local authority, both urban and rural, was really “not a very good idea and should be rejected by all residents”. They said they could even go on to the streets if their complaints are not taken seriously.