admin
Vusumuzi Dube, Municipal Reporter
BULAWAYO city councillors could have connived to award a company without any performance bond a key council housing project, a move that is now creating complications for the local authority to monitor the project.
The local authority awarded the company 1 000 high density stands in Cowdray Park in 2014. However, recent revelations show that councillors passed a motion that saw the company being awarded the stands without a performance bond which is a prerequisite to any project of such a magnitude.
A performance bond is a written guarantee from a third party guarantor (usually a bank or an insurance company) submitted to a principal (client or customer) by a contractor on winning the bid. It ensures payment of a sum (not exceeding a stated maximum) of money in case the contractor fails in the full performance of the contract.
However, it has since emerged that councillors ignored council management advice that they could only award the company after they submitted the performance bond to prove their capability to perform the project and ensure residents monies were safe if they bought into the stands offered by the company.
Responding to questions from Sunday News, the local authority’s spokesperson, Mrs Nesisa Mpofu confirmed that the company was awarded the stands without a performance bond, revealing that they only awarded for the waiver in submitting the performance bond two years after they were offered the stands.
“The project comprises 1 000 high density stands in Cowdray Park. The company was offered these stands in terms of council resolution of 3 December 2014. In terms of this resolution the company was expected to fully service the stands and construct houses thereon.
“The company was allocated in terms of council procedure in that the company applied and a report was submitted to council leading to subsequent allocation of the stands. The company wrote to council requesting for a waiver of the performance bond and council of 6 January 2016 acceded to the request hence the company did not submit a performance bond,” said Mrs Mpofu.
A council source who spoke on condition of anonymity said the whole project was shrouded in controversy from the start, with councillors not entertaining council management’s advice instead opting to award a company with a project of such magnitude while they did not have a proven track record or let alone documentation to prove that they had capacity to service the stands.
“What the councillors did is like taking an individual from the streets and awarding him 1 000 stands. Management tried to advice against such but surprisingly were united in saying there was no need for the company to submit a performance bond, now we can’t even monitor the company because we don’t even know whether they had the capacity in the first place.
“Personally I believe this is one avenue one can start at if they want to prove that these councillors are corrupt, all these other allegations which they peddle around are neither here nor there but this project stinks big time and what is interesting is that the evidence is there for all to see, clearly councillors abused their powers,” said the source.
According to the company’s website they claim that the Bulawayo City Council will award them a further 3 000 stands upon completion of their current project.
“(name of company) has embarked on making inroads towards reducing this backlog through a recent acquisition of land from Bulawayo City Council to service and develop 1 000 high density housing units in Cowdray Park Suburb. The company will also be awarded land to build an additional 3 000 units upon successful completion of the first project. We continue to search for partners in both private and public sector for suitable development projects and we are currently pursuing other acquisitions including in Harare,” reads part of their statement.
Online Reporter