SPB admits to corruption in tender awards

not have enough staff to investigate if parastatals and min­istries were following the law in pro­curement.
The committee wanted to the SPB chair­man to clarify reports that some of his offi­cers were corruptly awarding tenders.

“The possibility of corruption could be there at the evaluation stage where some people may see that a certain bidder has met all the specifications. They then phone that bidder asking for a payment to facilitate that they win the tender when the bidder was still going to win it because they have met all the requirements,” Mr Kuwaza said.

“I can’t say there is no corruption but what we want is that our officers should not abuse their positions. As a board our atti­tude is zero tolerance to corruption and our officers know that if they do it they will go to jail,” he said.
Legislators also asked Mr Kuwaza why his board ignored recommenda­tions from min­istries and parastatals on preferred bidders.

Goromonzi North legislator Cde Paddy Zhanda (Zanu-PF) chairs the committee.
“ . . . we have heard that some of your officers were taken to court over cor­ruption,” Cde Zhanda said. “We heard that before results are opened, some people will already be knowing them.”

Bulawayo South MP, Mr Eddie Cross (MDC-T), said the fact that the SPB did not take recommendations resulted in them awarding tenders to companies without capacity. He asked who was to blame if the SPB awarded tenders to underper­forming companies that will not deliver.
Mr Kuwaza said they only awarded ten­ders on the basis of the criteria set out in the tender documents as long as the companies would have been pre-certified by their mother organisations. He said if the winning bidder failed to do the job, blame was supposed to be directed at the ministry or parastatal that draws con­tracts.

Tsholotsho South legislator, Mr Maxwell Dube (MDC), asked Mr Kuwaza, if his board had been involved in the tendering process for the construction of the National Defence College along Mazowe Road.

“In the Act there is a provision on a gen­eral policy, which we receive from the Presi­dent. You should ask the President’s Office regarding that policy. As you may be aware Cabinet adopted the Look East policy and we are guided by that,” Mr Kuwaza said.
He said the board had not yet done due diligence on the project adding that he will raise it with the board.Legislators alleged that the contractor at the Defence

College imported all the equip­ment from China including labour.
The MPs said there was need for a law  spelling out that if a foreigner won a tender they were not supposed to bring some of the equipment that can be found locally.

Mr Kuwaza said there was no industry to talk about because it had been affected by hyper-inflation.
He said his board will not use the indi­genisation and economic empowerment law to give tenders to local companies that did not have capacity.