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Chronicle Reporter
Police and the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc) have arrested Gweru City Council (GCC) acting Town Clerk Vakayi Douglas Chikwekwe for alleged criminal abuse of office.
Chikwekwe appeared for initial remand before Gweru magistrate Ms Miriam Banda facing one count of criminal abuse of office.
He was not asked to plead. Ms Banda remanded him out of custody on $100 000 bail to March 17.
Part of his bail conditions include not interfering with State witnesses and reporting once every fortnight at the Zacc offices in Gweru.
Prosecutor Mr Fredrick Matsheza told the court that the complainant is Mr Tapiwa Hove who is employed by the Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (Praz) as a legal manager.
The court heard that Chikwekwe’s duties as the accounting officer for GCC among others include ensuring that procurement activities are carried out in compliance with the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Act [Chapter 22:235) and any other directions of the Praz.
The court heard that sometime in 2020, GCC wanted to develop and service Mkoba 21 stands and as such on May 29 the same year, the local authority advertised an invitation of expression of interest in the Zimbabwean Government Gazette for tender number GCC /01/06/2020.
Eight prospective bidders submitted their applications and on June 30, 2020, the technical evaluation committee recommended that Sheasham Investments, Casas Properties and Wackdrive (Pvt) Ltd be shortlisted as they were compliant with the mandatory requirements.
On July 3 in 2020, the Procurement Management Unit Committee (PMUC), which was chaired by Chikwekwe, approved the recommendation made by the technical evaluation committee.
Further, the PMUC allegedly recommended that the tender be submitted to the Special Procurement Oversight Committee (SPOC).
The accused, as the accounting officer, allegedly submitted the tender documents to the SPOC for review on July 29, 2020.
The State alleged that he was supposed to obtain clearance from the SPOC with regard to the documents he had submitted on July 29, 2020, for review.
However, Chikwekwe as the accounting officer for GCC proceeded to award contracts to the three bidders on August 18, 2020, without clearance from the SPOC in contravention of Section 94 (3) of the Public Procurement and Disposal of the Public Assets Act (General) Regulations SI 5 of 2018 which requires for certification by the SPOC before awarding a contract.
The court heard that on August 20, 2020, Praz wrote a letter directing Chikwekwe to collect bids, extend bid validity, correct the evaluation reports and submit the revised evaluation reports which showed that the SPOC had not certified the awarding of the contracts to the three developers.
The State said Chikwekwe acted inconsistent or contrary to his duties as accounting officer for GCC by awarding contracts for the servicing of Mkoba 21 stands to Sheasham Investments, Casas Properties and Wackdrive (Pvt) Ltd without clearance from the SPOC thereby showing favour to the three land developers and disfavour to the other companies who bid for the servicing of the stands.
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