BULAWAYO residents have expressed concern over lack of transparency in the Bulawayo City Council (BCC) procurement and tender processes, saying they have resulted in contractors doing shoddy work or failing to complete projects.
Speaking at the policy dialogue conference organised by the Public Policy Research Institute of Zimbabwe in Bulawayo recently, Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association gender officer Abigail Siziba said residents’ perceptions were founded on past experiences and media reports.
The conference focused on procurement in local authorities and ran under the theme Towards Strengthening Local Government Procurement Processes for Improved Service Delivery.
Siziba said residents were aware of issues such as the acquisition of ambulances that were never delivered after council paid US$300 000 to a briefcase company.
“So imagine those sentiments as residents losing US$300 000 to a briefcase company, the cost that it has to service delivery in our city,” she said.
Siziba said residents were also concerned about the tender process that awarded the Egodini project and several other housing projects that were never completed or failed to meet set time-frames.
The US$60 million Egodini project was awarded to a South African company, Terracotta Trading (Pvt) Ltd, on October 11, 2012.
“We have had some instances, such as the refuse truck purchase that happened in 2021. We have seen local authorities purchasing water pumps that are non-functional for thousands of dollars that were transferred to the residents’ pockets through inflated rates,” Siziba said.
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She said residents were concerned over the tender given to the Tendy Three Investment Company that manages parking in the city, in which the company gets 70% while council gets 30%.
She said residents felt that council, as the owner of space, should be getting a reasonable percentage so as to benefit ratepayers.
BCC head of procurement Mlungelwa Khumalo said stakeholders in Bulawayo did not understand the procurement system in which suppliers had to be registered with Praz.
“General suppliers are not aware that for them to participate in the procurement processes, they have to be registered. If you are not registered as a supplier with Praz [Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe], it means you cannot participate in the tenders that we are advertising,” he said.
Khumalo said tender advertising was now done electronically and suppliers must register for specific categories, and if one is not registered in the category one wants to participate in, then they will not be considered.
Praz director — capacity building Cliff Gondo said that while the disposal of assets was not included in the past procurement processes, it was included so that local authorities could follow proper procedures in disposing of some old or otherwise obsolete assets.
“There is nothing wrong with briefcase companies, but there is everything wrong when we then give them work to do,” Gondo said.
He, however, indicated that while the government may rely on foreign supplies for various goods and components, it was willing to pay 20% more for goods supplied locally.
“Up to US$500 000, the law says buy local supplies and US$10 million the law says use local contractors,” Gondo said.
