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Harare Bureau
Zesa Holdings is sitting on thousands of pre-paid meters as contractors cannot move into areas with deficit because of the way the State Procurement Board structured their contracts, it has emerged.Over 100,000 households in Harare, Bulawayo and other western regions are yet to get the pre-paid meters as the company contracted to install the meters in those areas, Solahart, is failing to meet demand.
Two companies, Finmark and Nyamazela both of South Africa, which were contracted to cover other regions, have finished installation, but cannot move into areas with shortfalls because of procurement procedures.
For the companies to move into areas with shortfalls, according to procurement regulations, the contracts have to be varied, but with the approval of the SPB.
Zesa Holdings, through its subsidiary the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company, wrote to the SPB seeking variation of the contracts, but bickering between the two has seen the installation of pre-paid meters taking long to be completed.
Zesa spokesperson, Fullard Gwasira, on Thursday said they were still waiting for the SPB to vary the tender for them to meet their targets.
But SPB chairman, Charles Kuwaza, said according to Section 26 of the Procurement Regulations no one should vary a contract without the procurement body’s approval.
This section provides that: “In a contract for a fixed supply or service, the quantity of the supply or the extend of the service shall not be varied without the approval of the Board.”
Kuwaza said Zesa unsatisfactorily failed to explain why they had varied the contracts.
“These delays were caused solely because ZETDC varied contracts without seeking necessary approval from the SPB,” he said.
“The explanations for violation of Section 26 of the regulations were unsatisfactory, leading to lengthy correspondences between ourselves and the (ZETDC) accounting officer. Clearly, it is not illegal to vary contracts, but that must be properly authorised.”
Initially, there were four companies contracted to install 500,000 pre-paid meters countrywide, but the services of ZTE of China were withdrawn as they allegedly supplied faulty meters.
Just over 400,000 meters have been installed to date since August 2012.
Kuwaza said the SPB held several meetings with ZETDC management to “summarise” the problems besetting the contractors.
“At one point, the ZETDC asked the board (SPB) to increase quantities of meters on the ZTE contract, yet at the same time they were telling us that the ZTE meters were failing to meet the tender specifications,” Kuwaza said.
“That was absurd. The ZETDC also told us that they had cancelled the contract with ZTE, but when we wrote to ZTE, they refuted this assertion. We demanded explanations for these contradictions. While we deal with urgent matters promptly, these can only be finalised if the questions we pose are answered satisfactorily.”
Gwasira said Zesa wanted to deploy excess meters to areas with a deficit.
“As Zesa our paramount objective is to realise the pre-paid metering project in full in the shortest possible time,” he said.
“Consequently, if there is any excess capacity in any of our contractors, who have finished their prescribed areas, we want to deploy that capacity elsewhere.”
Sources within Zesa said had it not been for bickering between the SPB and the power utility, installation of the pre-paid meters would have been completed.
“We are still to install 100,000 in Harare and the Western regions and this cannot happen because of the way the contract was structured,” said the source.
“The Zim-Asset target base has 800,000 meters, but we have 500,000 pre-paid meters meaning the other 300,000 are going to be smart meters.”
The smart units, being installed at a cost of more than $100 million, are being introduced to curb tampering which has seen Zesa losing $10 million.
Online Reporter