According to documents in the possession of The Zimbabwean, councillors in the district have forwarded a motion proposing that the tender be cancelled, noting the unprocedural manner in which it was awarded.
The tender was awarded to Notify Enterprises on September 27, 2010, however, investigations have since shown that the company does not exist as the address that they had given was a residential home in Gwabalanda with the occupants denying any knowledge of the company.
It is reported that through the intervention of the CEO, Collen Moyo, another company was engaged to carry out the construction of the road, with some of the council’s equipment and plant being used to do the job.
Brief case company
“My investigations reveal that Notify Enterprises to all intents and purposes is a brief case company, while the Gwabalanda address that they provided does exist, the occupants of 6252 Gwabalanda Bulawayo know nothing about Notify Enterprises and neither is there a record of this company at the Deeds office,” reads a motion forwarded by one of the councillors.
It is also alleged that the company was fast tracked into the tendering system as it did not follow the necessary procedures required during the tendering process.
“There is nothing in our records regarding their certificate of incorporation, company registration and profile, it has since come to our attention that when the tender document were being opened, Notify Enterprise documents did not include a bid bond document, which on its own was adequate grounds for disqualification,” reads the motion.
The bid was also reportedly US$491 491 more expensive than the lowest bid.
“The awarding of a tender to an expensive bidder would have been ordinarily condoned in situations where one was dealing with a world class company with a reputation for quality work, in dealing with an unknown company which does not have a single record of previous work we would have expected the committee that adjudicated the tender to insist on our well established tradition of inspecting the equipment. None of this was done,” reads the motion.
Irregularities
One of the tendering companies (name supplied) reportedly also wrote to the council questioning the irregularities surrounding the whole tendering process.
“The whole thing stinks and we feel that these fraudulent activities need to be exposed, it is public money that is being spent and it must be done in a transparent and fair manner.
“We strongly request that an independent board of enquiry be set up to establish how these tender procedures have been flouted, and how the money allocated to the project has been disbursed,” reads part of the letter sent to the council by the company.
Efforts to get a comment from CEO were fruitless as he was continuously said to be in a meeting while his mobile phone went unanswered. However, councillors who spoke on condition of anonymity said they were not going to rest until they got to the bottom of the whole issue.
“Councillors began to suspect that something untoward was happening when in November 2010 council’s plant and equipment was spotted on site, when this piece of news was greeted by an outcry from councillors, the equipment and plant was withdrawn, but we feel the CEO has been left alone for sometime now we now have to move in and read the riot act,” said one of the councillors.
Post published in: News