admin
Minister Biti said the amendments would see the minimum threshold for parastatals and Government departments’ procurement of goods and services increasing from the current US$50 000 to a yet-to-be-established figure.
The current law ignored the build–operate-transfer or build–own–operate–transfer system, particularly where the contractor was expected to invest his own money.
“We will also have an oversight board to review what would have been done by the SPB, the purpose of the oversight board is to guard the guard.
“There should be some review mechanism to make sure the person who wins a contract is double checked for accountability purposes.”
Public Works Minister Joel Gabuza said: “What gives us headaches is the problem with administration. I suspect they don’t have a staff complement to adjudicate tenders and this has resulted in delays of about three months before tenders are awarded.”
“Sometimes people would tender half the price of our average expectation and the SPB would give those companies tenders without looking at the capacity of the companies.
“When we see such tenders we sometimes recommend to the board not to give contracts to those companies because we know they are briefcase businesses but the board would insist.”
Online Reporter