Copac co-ordinator in tender trouble

lanyards worth US$18 722. The material was meant for the Copac’s Second All Stakeholders Conference.
Marunda pleaded not guilty to criminal abuse of office when he appeared before Harare Magistrate Ms Anita Tshuma, who remanded him to October 19 on US$500 bail.
Prosecutor Mr Tungamirai Chakurira told the court that sometime in July, Marunda processed and approved a contract for African Legend Investment owned by Mr Clemence Guta, to do printing jobs for Copac.
African Legend Investment, the court heard, provides marketing and consultancy services and is not on the approved list of the State Procurement Board to provide printing services.
Marunda allegedly gave the company the first contract of supplying Copac with the Second All Stakeholders’ Conference material.
African Legend Investment quoted US$8 740 for the job.
On August 1, a full payment for the job was done into the company’s bank account through the Zimbabwe Electronic Transfer Settlement System (ZETSS).
Up to date, the branded materials have not been delivered.
On the second printing job, African Legend Investment was contracted to print the Copac draft constitution for which they quoted US$13 200 for 1 200 copies, the court heard.
It is alleged that on September 25, a deposit of US$9 982 was paid into African Legend Investment MBCA account for the draft national constitution.
Mr Chakurira said African Legend Investment had no printing machines and had no capacity to do the jobs.
Marunda authorised a total of US$18 722 to be paid to African Legend Investment, thereby showing favour and preference over other companies with the capacity to do the jobs.
He did not seek authority or approval by the SPB to enlist services of African Legend Investment as required by law.
Copac has a procurement committee whose core function is procurement of goods and services.
Marunda allegedly usurped duties of the committee and acted unilaterally as the finance and administration manager and acting national co-ordinator of Copac.