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The Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (PRAZ) has said its decision to put chief executive, Mr Nyasha Chizu, on leave was aboveboard, amid concern from legislators that the procurement entity might not be effectively superintending ministries to ensure value for money during this Covid-19 pandemic.
Legislators yesterday expressed concern on apparent lack of coordination between the PRAZ board and its management in expeditiously ensuring compliance by line ministries in procuring goods and services, particularly during the Covid-19 disease.
This came out when the PRAZ board led by Mrs Vimbai Nyemba and its management led by Mr Chizu gave oral evidence before Parliament’s portfolio Committee on Budget, Finance and Economic Development.
The committee chaired by Chikomba Central MP Cde Felix Mhona (Zanu PF), wanted to know compliance regulations of goods and services related to Covid-19 and why Mr Chizu had been sent on leave a day after he gave evidence before the same legislators in July.
He said Mr Chizu had written a letter to the Speaker of the National Assembly, Advocate Jacob Mudenda, alleging that he felt the decision was linked to his appearance before Parliament.
To that end, Mr Chizu wanted Parliament to issue a Certificate of Protection as a Witness of Parliament, as envisaged by the Privileges, Immunities and Powers of Parliament Act.
“I am surprised that there was a letter written to the Speaker of the National Assembly,” said Mrs Nyemba.
“There was no nexus between the decision to send Mr Chizu on leave and his appearance before this committee. It was an administrative decision which was internal.”
Mr Chizu said he had been sent on leave for 30 days, yet it was almost 90 days now and the situation had not changed.
Legislators wanted to know why PRAZ had not submitted documents that they had requested.
Mrs Nyemba said she was not aware that the committee wanted some documents since she was not present on the day of the request and that she was not an executive chairperson.
On the other hand, Mr Chizu said he could not do anything since the letter of his suspension indicated that he was not supposed to interact with staff of PRAZ.
“In terms of the law, I am supposed to appoint an acting CEO whenever I am not around, but I could not do this because the spirit of the letter indicated that I should not interact with stakeholders,” said Mr Chizu.
In the end, Cde Mhona said while they were concerned by intimidation of witnesses that come before Parliament, as legislators they would not act as adjudicators since there was adequate legal remedy available to Mr Chizu.
“We do not want to interfere with your operations, but we do oversight,” he said. “Witnesses are protected, we do not want to see witnesses being intimidated when they appear before committees. On the same note, we do not want to delve on issues that are not on the purview of the committee, like labour issues.”
Cde Mhona implored the board to bring finality given that it was now almost three months since Mr Chizu was on leave, meaning absence of a substantive leader had the effect of affecting operations given the Covid-19 pandemic it had to deal with.
During the hearing, it also emerged that procurement entities were supposed to submit monthly returns to PRAZ on what they had procured for review.
Legislators were concerned that PRAZ management failed to submit documents they had requested, notwithstanding the absence of Mr Chizu. In his evidence in July, Mr Chizu said some entities had not complied with procurement guidelines issued by the authority in March when the Covid-19 pandemic was declared a national disaster.
Mr Chizu said some cases had been referred to the Zimbabwe Anti Corruption Commission (Zacc) for further investigation.
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