adminThe firm, South Africa Infrastructural Investment Company, is expected to redevelop the border post into a One-Stop border post.
Finance Minister Tendai Biti announced during a tour of the border post last month that the relationship between the Government and the company had been terminated.
He said the company failed to start work within the agreed 14 months from 18 August in 2010.
Minister Biti said the Government would go back to the drawing board to engage “a serious company capable of doing the job”.
But the permanent secretary in the Regional Integration and International Cooperation Ministry Mr Tedious Chifamba said in a statement that the assertion was not correct.
He said parties involved in the project would meet next month to determine the status of the agreement.
Mr Chifamba said: “As co-ordinators of Spatial Development Initiatives in Zimbabwe and also the secretariat to the Inter-ministerial Steering Committee on the implementation of the Beitbridge Redevelopment Project, the ministry notes with concern numerous Press statements made with regards to the status of the project.
“The parties in the implementation of the project, at a meeting convened by the Prime Minister agreed that the committee will hold a full briefing meeting in February after which a decision on the status of the Beitbridge Concession Agreement shall be made and a recommendation taken to Cabinet.
“Consequently, no decision on the cancellation of the Concession Agreement has been made by Government.”
In September 2010, Government through a formal Cabinet approval signed the agreement with the South African company to restructure the post into a One-Stop Border Post.
An inter-ministerial committee was set up to manage the implementation of the project chaired by the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority with the ministry as the secretariat.
“The project was handed over to the contractor in April last year, but the contractor could not move on site since the previous contractors whose contracts had been terminated were still in occupation,” said Mr
Chifamba.
All these processes, according to the ministry, constituted a reason for the delays in the commencement of work.
The One-Stop Border Post at Beitbridge is set to quicken traffic movement at the busiest post in Zimbabwe.
Online Reporter