SOME analysts insist that the procurement sector is as murky as the oil and diamond industries.
The oil and diamond sectors are imbedded in collusion and other underhand dealings and are also controlled by cartels.
A public spate among Zimbabwe’s leading tenderpreneurs in the past few weeks has opened a window into the dirty and dark world of public tenders that has made a clique of the political exposed persons extravagantly wealthy.
It is now a public secret that Wicknell Chivayo is politically connected and has built his wealth from public tenders.
Several weeks ago, his associates — Mike Chimombe and Moses Mpofu — were complaining that Chivayo was cheating them out of the fair share of the proceeds from a US$40 million Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) procurement tender.
Media reports say the Zec tenders could be as high as US$100 million.
The government has paid or is paying.
Leaked audios have painted a picture of Chivayo allegedly pacifying his colleagues by telling them to be patient and less greedy as more tenders are on their way.
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The duo of Chimombe and Mpofu is now languishing in remand prison on a charge of fraud after forging company papers to win a US$87 million tender to supply goats to the Agriculture ministry under the Presidential Goat Scheme.
This week, Zimbabweans became aware that Mpofu was awarded another US$9 million tender to fix City of Harare’s street lighting.
In the same articles, it was revealed that Mpofu had previously been paid to develop a bio-digester by the city and failed to deliver.
Other names that quickly come to mind are multi-million tenders to Dilesh Nguwaya and Kudakwashe Tagwireyi.
Nguwaya was awarded a tender for the integrated waste management in Harare without a public tender.
On the other hand, Tagwireyi was awarded a tender to finance and construct the US$88 million Mbudzi interchange.
Tagwireyi, during the COVID-19 pandemic, managed to have his hospitals licensed to operate as COVID-19 treatment centres and also got a tender to supply personal protective equipment.
The unique thread in all these deals is they are never publicly tendered.
These individuals sent unsolicited bids and, more often than not, the bids are accepted and are paid in advance.
It is conceivable that there is collusion and coercion in these deals.
The companies or the individuals mentioned frequently have advance or inside information about the government plans or projects to be implemented.
This collusion is serious and may analysts argue that it could be linked to the highest office in Zimbabwe.
Many of the tenders are awarded after some of the projects are granted national project status and have to be cleared by the Cabinet.
In many of the projects, the procurement is done as if it’s an emergency. Mostly, these are man-made crises except the 2019 Cyclone Idai and the 2020-22 COVID-19 pandemic.
It is instructive to note that the Emmerson Mnangagwa’s administration, when it came to power, ran under the tag “Zimbabwe is open for business”.
Finance minister Mthuli Ncube in his first budget statement was clear that capital will take the lead, a euphemism that markets/businesspeople will determine how and where we go.
Ncube was clear that there would be a lot of subcontracting certain services to private players and a wholesale disinvestment from State-owned enterprises.
However, for this to happen the government usually create a crisis or an emergency which necessitates the cutting of corners in procurement of services to avert disaster.
It is not a secret that service provision in the City of Harare has been declining with each passing year.
The government was there and inactive.
It was waiting for the services such as refuse collection, water reticulation and maintenance of roads to totally collapse before it intervened in a crisis situation.
Zimbabwe had seen how Nguwaya’s Geo Pomona was given the contract for waste management in the capital.
It was created to coincide with heaps of waste in the central business district, let alone the suburbs.
The moment the contract was awarded, yes there was outcry, but many residents on reflection said it was better because some rubbish was being collected.
The same happened in the Emergency Road Rehabilitation Programme, where the central government through the Zimbabwe National Road Administration and a coterie of well-placed civil engineering companies, were given lucrative contracts to rehabilitate major roads in urban areas.
There was no scrutiny either by Parliament or the public as nearly everyone was relieved that the roads would once again be passable.
Hosting major regional or continental events is not an emergency.
Many times, countries know in advance, say three years or more before they host the event.
It is baffling that next month’s hosting of the Sadc Summit is being treated like an emergency.
Tenders for construction of new roads, widening existing roads or resurfacing were given out without any competitive bidding.
Some of the works done are shoddy, for instance Lorraine Drive, in Bluffhill.
The road was in a bad state less than a month after rehabilitation, yet the company had been paid.
There is a pattern in all this disguised madness.
Some in the administration have read and understood Naomi Klein’s seminal book The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism.
They realised that for them to fundamentally change the way business is done or introduce radical ideas, they needed two scenarios — a disaster/emergency and the solution has to be introduced through shock and awe.
The Mnangagwa administration is good at creating crises and then comes in as a knight in shining armour by doling out multi-million-dollar contracts to their associates without going to tender while the people are still in shock.
They have done this not only once, and its modus operandi.
It is clear that the Parliament and many in civil society are missing the ball when it comes to public finances.
No petitions or picketing has been done against this even as year after year, the Auditor General produces damning audits of how government ministries, departments and agencies are embezzling billions.
It’s time man-made crises projects should be stopped.
- Paidamoyo Muzulu is a journalist based in Harare. He writes here in his personal capacity.
