Online Reporter
Zvikomborero Parafini
Jailed businessman, Moses Mpofu, returned to court on Wednesday, where he was remanded to next month for indictment for his second fraud trial that is set to be heard at the High Court.
Mpofu, who is being charged with his wife Nobukhosi and his brother, Vusimuzi James Mpofu, who are the co-directors of his company Synlak Private Limited, appeared before Harare regional magistrate Jessie Kufa.
They were remanded to February 13.
Mpofu is appearing on behalf of his company and in his personal capacity.
The complainant is the State, represented by the Acting Town Clerk, Mabhena Moyo. The court heard that in December 2013, the City of Harare received a grant award of 350 500 Euros from the European union for the design and construction of 4 by 200m3 biogas digesters and the supply, installation and commissioning of 100KVA biogas generator for Mbare biogas project.
City of Harare then entered into a grant contract with the European Union, represented by the European Commission.
On January 30 2015, City of Harare representatives held a meeting with the European union delegation, represented by Mr Jorge Pereiro, Mr Severin Mellac and Mr Martin Zhou, whose main agenda was to deliberate on the progress in the implementation of the Bio-Based Waste Management Project that was being funded by the EU.
A notice from the European union delegation was issued on February 15, 2015, authorising the City of Harare to launch a public tender to select a suitable civil works contract for the project on condition that the contract should be awarded by March 31 2015.
Vusumuzi was appointed the Project Supervisor on that meeting.
The City of Harare launched an invitation to tender on the March 13, 2015, for the Design and Construction of 4*200m3 biogas digesters and the supply, installation and commissioning of a 100KVA biogas generator for the Mbare Biogas Project.
A site visit was to be conducted on March 17 2015, and final bids were to be submitted by March 24 2015.
According to the requirements of the conditions of the City of Harare Invitation to Tender for Design and Construction of 4*200m3 biogas digesters and the supply, installation and commissioning of 100KVA biogas generator for Mbare Biogas Project Tender No.: COH/DOW/S.9/2015 clause 1.9 stated that; “payment in united states dollars shall be made within 60 (sixty) days after installation and commissioning of the biogas plant and submission of an invoice by the contractor. Bidders must state concurrence to the payment requirement in clause 1.9.”
Furthermore, according to Clause 3.1 the proposed evaluation criteria was to be as follows; “No. 1 PROOF THAT SUPPLIER IS MANUFACTURER OR AUTHORISED AGENT” – Bidders were required to attach letter or authorisation from the Principal/ManufacturerNo. 11 COUNTRY OF ORIGIN” – Country of Origin of the generator and any other components to be supplied must be clearly stated by bidders.”
According to the requirements of the conditions of the City of Harare Invitation to Tender, failure to meet any of the requirements under the Evaluation Criteria in clause 3.1 would lead to automatic disqualification.
The court heard that four companies, namely, Synlak (Pvt) Limited, The Mongrel Investments (Pvt) Limited, Sneydon Investments (Pvt) Limited and Contech Contractors (Pvt) Limited, responded to the tender invitation.
In their bid document, Synlak, Mpofu and his accomplices pledged that they would submit an invoice for payment within 60 days after the installation and commissioning of the biogas plant and that their prices would be valid for 90 days during which the project would be completed.
Synlak and Mpofu stated their concurrence with this clause in the bid document. They further stated that their bid document they further stated that payment was to be made by bank electronic transfer within 60 days from project completion.
It is alleged that on March 28, 2015, the then Director of Works, Phillip Mabingo Pfukwa, who is on remand on similar allegations, performed a technical evaluation and recommended the awarding of the tender to Synlak.
Based on the evaluation report generated by Phillip Mabingo Pfukwa the then Corporate Services and Housing Director, Josphine Ncube, who is also on remand on similar allegations, awarded the contract to Synlak.
Upon signing of the contract, Mpofu and his accomplices allegedly wrote a letter to Tendai Kwenda, the then Director of Finance for the City of Harare, who is yet to be arrested, requesting a phased payment schedule with an advance payment of US$186 116, no invoice was raised.
This was done notwithstanding that the tender was awarded on the basis that the bidder had pledged that they had financial muscles to carry out works to commissioning before making claims for payments as per their presentation on the bidder document when they indicated that there were aware and will comply with the condition that payment shall be made within sixty (60) days after installation and commissioning of the biogas plant and submission of an invoice by them and overall completion of the project.
During the period in question, Mpofu, his accomplices and Tendai Kwenda hatched a plan to process the payment for the project before the completion and commissioning of the project.
On August 20 2015, Mpofu and his accomplices generated an invoice on the letter head of Synlak demanding an advance payment of US$465 290 from the City of Harare which was the total price for the design and construction of the 4*200m3 biogas digestor and supply and installation of 1*100KVA biogas digestor generator misrepresenting that they had fully supplied as per the conditions stated in the clauses of the tender.
They allegedly misrepresented to the City of Harare that they had fully supplied as per the requirements of the tender and Tendai Kwenda certified that the contractor had fully delivered.
During the period extending from September 17, 2015, to November 19, 2016, Tendai Kwenda, in advancing their plan of defrauding the City of Harare, authorised and made payments to the sum of US$415 290 into Synlak’s CABS and BancABC accounts.
Mpofu and his accomplices allegedly took turns to make cash withdrawals, which they would use for other purposes, contrary to the purposes the funds were intended to be used.
The payments were made in the absence of certificates of completion, despite the fact that the project was required to be paid after completion and commissioning.
Oscar Madhume appeared for the State.
