adminInnocent Ruwende Municipal Reporter
Harare Mayor Councillor Bernard Manyenyeni has questioned the city’s capacity to negotiate multi-million-dollar deals with firms interested in partnering council in its projects.
Clr Manyenyeni said it was imperative for the city to have stand-by resource persons or two permanent analysts to support decision-makers with competent input in contract negotiation and formulation.
The mayor was responding to this paper’s editorial comment of Monday December 30, 2013 in which it questioned a deal in which South African company Neo Capital will provide US$400 million to rehabilitate and maintain roads in the capital.
The broader infrastructure plan includes mass light rail, bus and taxi transport systems.
In the editorial comment, The Herald suggested that the council should consult Zimbabwean financial and engineering experts to see if the deal was viable.
“We think the council, having accepted that something like this is required, must now go through the correct procedures to ensure that the people of Harare do get the best deal. Then, when the council signs, everyone is on board,” read part of the editorial.
Clr Manyenyeni, who said the paper’s editorial comment was without doubt one of the best he had read in any paper for a long time, said he had discussed almost verbatim the comment regarding the contract with Town Clerk Dr Tendai Mahachi and the engineering director.
“I relate fully with the clear analysis done in your comment. As if my thoughts had been shared with you before, I bemoaned the apparent skills and experience gap to attend to transactions of this magnitude.
“You may also have sensed from my inaugural speech that I am not convinced we have the requisite capacity within council – both executive and the elected councillors,” he said.
Clr Manyenyeni said such capacity was locally available and the cost would be more than justified, adding that at the moment council appeared over-reliant on submissions from the project vendors themselves.
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