Wenslus Murape
Paul Pindani in CHINHOYI
CHINHOYI Provincial Hospital medical superintendent, Dr Collect Mawire, has been cleared of criminal abuse of office charges after the State failed to place sufficient evidence to secure a conviction.
Mawire and his co-accused Otilia Nkomo, who was in charge of procurement, were arrested by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) earlier this year.
Otilia is still at large.
Mawire, who is a specialist obstetrician and gynaecologist, appeared before Chinhoyi Magistrate Archie Wochiunga who ruled that the State had failed to prove its case.
The State had claimed that sometime in February 2021, the Chinhoyi Provincial Hospital (CPH) sought to procure a 500 EX HT Expandable PABX machine for ZWL2 498 900.
In order to fast track the process, the State claimed, Mawire was accused of authorising the use of request for quotations knowing fully well that the value involved was way above the threshold of such a request.
The States alleged that in terms of Section 10 (2) of PPDPA Regulations, the request for quotation method is used where a procurement value does not exceed US$10 000. When the procurement exceeds the prescribed value, competitive bidding must be used.
Otilia was the procurement manager for CPH and in charge of the department which supervises the evaluation committee, receives the committee’s evaluation reports and submits all evaluation reports to the accounting officer for final approval.
Mathew Masinge
Online Reporter