Mangoma ruffles Zanu feathers

Mangoma, who the state-run Sunday Mail claims faces re-arrest on fresh charges of cancelling a tender for the procurement of ZESA meters, says he has already responded to the allegation in a civil suit brought by Solahart Zimbabwe (Pvt) Ltd, which thought it was the front runner in the bidding process.

Solahart Zimbabwe has dragged Mangoma to court for allegedly unilaterally cancelling the tender process in what it claims was a move meant to ensure a South African company, Vas-X Technologies (Private) Limited, won the contract.

Mangoma said he cancelled the contract because he wanted to give the tender to a company that could install “smart meters” because ZESA had failed to resolve the billing problems and consumers had lost faith in the billing system. Mangoma said there was anger with these reforms because the billing problems had given a golden opportunity to some corrupt ZESA people to fleece the consumers.

Load shedding reduced

Mangoma said he was interested in “smart meters” so that he could deal “once and for all” with the billing problems. The smart meters he wanted to buy would ensure that consumers would be able to pay as they consume, using the meters prepayment facility. The smart meters will be able to ration the electricity so that more people will be able to have it and reduce load shedding, he told ***The Zimbabwean. Consumers will be able to install their own smart meters using ZESA accredited installers.

Solahart Zimbabwe, which was under the impression that it was front runner in the tender that had been floated for old meters by his permanent secretary Justin Mupamhanga, sued the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission Distribution Company, ZETDC which was cited as the first respondent, the State Procurement Board (SPB) as the second respondent, Mangoma the third respondent and Deloitte Zimbabwe as the fourth respondent.

Deloitte Zimbabwe eventually won the contract for the supply of smart meters. The Sunday Mail claims it was a corrupt deal ostensibly because Mangoma used to work for Deloitte as a deputy general manager and that the tender specifications were done by his PA Sabina Chitehwe, who was also formerly with Deloitte. The Mail said he faces “criminal charges” and that the police were finalising investigations after which the minister will be rearrested.

According to High Court papers, filed under case number 1233/11, Solahart accuses the minister of usurping ZETDC and SPBs authority to adjudicate in the tender process.

In opposing papers filed at the High Court on February 21, Mangoma says Solaharts allegations are unfounded and centred on speculation. As the responsible minister, he says in his opposing papers, he has the mandate to set policy and direction within his ministry and not follow his subordinates orders.

Setting record straight

In any event I need to set the record straight. I as the Minister of Energy and Power Development set policy and directions and not the permanent secretary,” Mangoma said in his court papers. “He (permanent secretary) can only write things concerning parastatals on my say-so, not on his own initiative. I am not in contest with the permanent secretary. The applicant cannot question my role as the responsible minister. The direction I have given is to go for smart metering.

Mangoma slammed the state-run media for “bad reporting.” He said nobody had contacted him inquiring about the Solahart deal and he was also in the dark about what was happening.

“Nobody ever phoned me, so I am not sure whats happening,” Mangoma told The Zimbabwean.

Asked who he thought was pushing for his prosecution – he was freed from remand prison last week Tuesday after a weekend behind bars on bail after he was indicted for allegedly sealing a US$6million fuel deal with a South African company NOOA- he said it was “political”.

He declined to disclose names of the people pursuing his prosecution, saying it was a matter still before the courts.

“After the court hearing I will be able to tell you more,” he said. “But you should not forget there is US$35million missing from Noczim that we are chasing, dont forget we have just reconstructed Noczim and that has made some people unhappy.”

NOCZIM restructuring

Cabinet approved the restructuring of NOCZIM into two companies, one responsible for trading and the other for the infrastructure. The Restructuring was done on 31 December 2010 and the two companies started operating from 1 January 2011.

Mangoma said an audit conducted by Ernst and Young revealed that NOCZIM had stolen US$35m of Zimra funds between February 2009 and February 2010. This was a symptom of malpractices at NOCZIM, and he fired or demoted the corrupt managers, a move that has angered top dogs in government that had used the existing corrupt managers at NOCZIM to fleece government of money.

“There have been changes that have been put in we have now instituted that fuel comes by pipeline. You should know that a lot of the fellows had their own trucks and they are not happy.”

Mangoma has raised US$11million just to fill the Beira-Feruka-Msasa pipeline with dead stock and the oil has started flowing into the country, impacting heavily on those who were making money by using their trucks to deliver fuel.

Mangoma said he was working to ensure the country had long standing permanent contracts with refineries and suppliers of fuel given that the current short-term sporadic contracts where vulnerable to price increases. The prices of fuel have been going up from as low as US$45 a barrel now to over US$90 a barrel.

“For the record, I am particularly allergic to corruption, greed and patronage. ZESA will be purified. NOCZIM will be sorted out. The Rural Electrification Agency will be distilled. The guilty are afraid and no amount of noise and vilification by corrupt forces will stand in my way in pursuit of excellence and delivery for real change,” said Mangoma.