Zesa Sinks Deep In New Tender Scandal

Published: 2016 June 27 05:49:33 (5808 Views)

Zesa Holdings has found itself into a fresh scandal after it was revealed that the power company had issued repeated tender offers worth millions to a local company that is faiiling to deliver, even after receiving a hefty payment to facilitate the completion of the program.

Repeated offers of contracts to Pito Investments when it is failing to perform have raised suspicion that senior managers at the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC) could be conniving with the firm’s officials to milk the power utility.

This comes amid revelations that Pito Investments once won a tender to supply 30 tonnes of silica gel, but delivered “stones” and was still paid $138 000 in public funds.

Silica gel is used to prevent forming of moisture in electricity distribution transformers, and the “stones” supplied by Pito Investments did not have the properties to absorb moisture.

A local publication last week exposed the company for recently supplying wrong underground cables in a $6,8 million tender it was awarded six years ago.

ZETDC had paid a $1,1 million deposit to Pito, but the firm brought 1 kilovolt cables instead of 11kv cables.

Despite that history, ZETDC went on to award the firm another $7,2 million tender for the supply of 3 000 distribution transformers and paid a deposit of $1,9 million. Pito is failing to deliver on the tender, forcing ZETDC to turn to its sister company, Zesa Enterprise, for the transformers.

ZENT is also failing to meet ZETDC requirements. On the latest tender, ZETDC managing director Engineer Julian Chinembiri confirmed receiving wrong material instead of silica gel from Pito Investments. “Pito won a tender in 2013 for the supply of 30 tonnes of silica gel,” he said.

“Payment was made for the full consignment. The 30 tonnes they delivered failed the test and they had been paid $138 000. The company was asked to collect its ‘silica gel’ and replace it with the correct product. They collected their product from us and are yet to replace the silica gel. Pito has produced shipping documents for 15 tonnes of silica gel which is still in transit.”

Pito managing director Allex Chideme confirmed “erring on the contract”. “We have the shipping documents to replace the whole consignment we got from India,” he said.

“How can you pay without being satisfied by the product? It’s also either the engineers are incompetent or procedures are not being followed somewhere somehow,” a source said.

The source went on to say there was no need to continue awarding the contracts to Pito Investments when it was failing to deliver.

- Herald

Tags: Zesa, scandal, tender,

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