MPILO Central hospital chief executive officer (CEO)Lawrence Mantiziba has distanced himself from an alleged scandal which involved the contract of a security company, reportedly owed $1 million by the health institution, saying when the tender was awarded he had not joined the hospital.
Richard Muponde Senior Court REPORTER
His sentiments came on the heels of a publication of an article by the Chronicle on Monday alleging Mantiziba had threatened to cancel the security company, Manifest’s contract, in January last year after he allegedly awarded the tender to Modern Security covertly on the basis it was the lowest bidder, but the Administrative Court reversed the decision.
Mantiziba yesterday said when the tender was given to Morden Security he had not joined Mpilo as CEO.
“I only joined on September 1 2012 when the Administrative Court had already reversed the decision to award Morden Security the tender ahead of Manifest,” he said.
“For a hospital like Mpilo, court papers don’t mention the position of a CEO as an individual, but as an office.
“It’s wrong for the publication to cite me as an individual not the office of the CEO because when all this happened there was an acting CEO.”
Mantiziba said there were deliberate moves to tarnish his image without verifying facts for reasons he said were unknown to him.
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A perusal of the court documents and the tender processes which gave rise to the dispute between Mpilo and the two security firms, Manifest and Morden, revealed that all the processes took place when Mantiziba had not assumed the position of CEO.
Before September 1 2012 the tender had already been awarded to Morden Security.
The documents revealed that the tender was advertised on April 3 2012 and a Mpilo procurement tender committee adjudicated on it between April 16 and 20 at Sethule Lodge in Bulawayo.
The committee was chaired by the director of operations, Duduzile Regina Moyo, which made its recommendations to the then acting CEO, Wedu Ndebele, who in turn sent them to the State Procurement Board.
However, during the course of time, Manifest’s lawyers, Cheda and Partners wrote to Mpilo on June 29 2012 advising the institution that Manifest had appealed to the Administrative Court against the awarding of the tender to Morden Security.
The appeal Case Number P116/12 was upheld by the Administrative Court on August 28 2012 giving the tender to Manifest, four days before Mantiziba assumed office.
