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BULAWAYO councillors will soon suspend some top executives as the local authority struggles to save face against the backdrop of an avalanche of corruption allegations and a court application calling for the dissolution of the council.
The authority has in the past month been hit by a number of corruption allegations regarding the handling of a number of tenders, with allegations that some senior council officials influenced the outcome of these tenders.
Last week the Affirmative Action Group (AAG) took the Minister of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing Cde Saviour Kasukuwere and the Bulawayo Provincial Administrator Ms Khonzani Ncube to court seeking Government to suspend all councillors and appoint a commission of inquiry to investigate alleged tender irregularities at the local authority.
Council sources have revealed that the local authority convened a special council meeting on Monday where councillors called for the immediate suspension of the city’s chamber secretary Mrs Sikhangele Zhou and director of engineering services Engineer Simela Dube.
Mrs Zhou was the acting town clerk when most of the tenders which are being disputed were awarded, while Eng Dube leads the department where most of the irregularities are alleged to have occurred.
The city’s mayor, Councillor Martin Moyo, could neither confirm nor deny the outcome of the meeting. Instead, he said if there were any irregularities council had systems that could investigate and bring anyone found on the wrong side of the law to book.
“We have various systems that can handle those matters like our audit committee for instance. We are investigating the allegations and if there is any truth to all what is being said we will surely get to the bottom of it.
“My initial reaction when these allegations were made I thought they were frivolous but as a local authority we cannot just dismiss them from face value, we have to institute investigations. If it means us appointing an independent auditor we will do that,” said Clr Moyo.
Sunday News also attempted to get in touch with the town clerk, Mr Middleton Nyoni, but he declined to comment saying the matter was under investigation.
However, councillors who spoke to this publication on condition of anonymity said they were avoiding a situation where they became the fall-persons when they were not anywhere close to the tender scams that were being investigated.
“We got communication from the Minister inquiring on what we are doing regarding that matter so it is natural that as councillors we must be seen to be doing something, we cannot be persecuted because someone is messing up.
“What we are pushing for now is that we get both Mrs Zhou and Eng Dube suspended while investigations are ongoing because as long as they are at work they might interfere with witnesses or even cover their steps if they are guilty. We are not saying they be fired but simply if they are innocent they will be reinstated,” said one councillor.
Another councillor bemoaned the change in procurement laws which had seen councillors no longer having power to monitor the procurement process.
“These officials take advantage of the fact that they know that they constitute the procurement committee so when items come for discussion during council meetings they find a way of disguising their corruption such that we pass the items only to discover later that they tricked us,” said the councillor.
Last week the AAG, through their lawyer Mr Dumisani Dube of Mathonsi and Ncube Law Chambers, filed an urgent chamber application before High Court judge Justice Maxwell Takuva under case number HC2049/15.
Minister of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing, Cde Saviour Kasukuwere and Bulawayo Provincial Administrator Ms Khonzani Ncube were cited as first and second respondents respectively.
In the pressure group’s founding affidavit they allege the local authority has tenders worth $8 749 914 that have serious irregularities due to massive corruption, nepotism, negligence and collusion of Bulawayo City Council officials.
A couple of weeks ago, the AAG issued Clr Moyo an ultimatum to explain a number of tender allegations levelled against the local authority, with the same group also petitioning the local authority following alleged widespread tender irregularities involving the local authority.
The group was irked by reports that contracts with a combined value of about $8,7 million were re-tendered or extended after winning companies either disappeared or failed to complete projects.
It was alleged that defaulting companies were working in cahoots with senior council officials who played both tender adjudication and supervisory roles, creating fertile ground for manipulation in the bidding process.
Online Reporter