Parliament of Zimbabwe was recently forced to cancel two controversial tenders in which it intended to procure laptops and desktop computers at inflated prices.
Parliament had contracted Blinart Investments for the supply of 173 laptops at a cost of US$1,602,755.77.
It had also contracted Mid-End Computers and Hardware for the supply of 79 desktops computers at a cost US$243,052.36.
While the transactions would have been paid in local currency at the interbank rate, the prices had been inflated such that one laptop would have cost US$9,000.
The cancellation, which was done in the public interest according to clerk of Parliament Kennedy Chokuda, came following an outcry on the attempted looting of resources.
It came after Treasury permanent secretary George Guvamatanga had directed Parliament to cancel the tenders and blacklist the two suppliers in future transactions.
For far too long, Parliament has been known to hold the executive to account and exposing the rot in State-owned enterprises and parastatals.
Parliamentary portfolio committees have been effective in exposing corruption and recommending measures to stop the rot.
That corruption would happen in Parliament’s corridors could have been unthinkable. This could explain why Norton legislator Temba Mliswa was fuming last week when Chokuda and his team appeared before the portfolio committee on Public Accounts.
Opposition lawmakers said Chokuda and his team should resign.
Treasury has been tough on government suppliers accusing them of inflating the prices and taking the proceeds on the parallel market where the local currency was being routed leading to a spike in prices of basic goods and services.
The government has been pushing the value for money concept stipulating that suppliers that inflate prices will be blacklisted while officials that play a midwife role in inflating prices risk prosecution.
As the biggest buyer in the economy, the government has been the breeding ground for corruption with fly by night tenderpreneurs pocketing millions.
The modus operandi has been the same: inflate prices and people smile all the way to the bank. Those that would have approved such outrageous prices get their share of the “profits” to oil the wheels of bureaucracy.
Overnight, new billionaires have been churned out and are known for painting the city green as the splash.
The new mbingas, as they are called in street lingo, have not produced anything. They have no created employment and do not pay the taxes. They take goods from point A to B.
It is the taxpayer that funds government after its coffers have been depleted.
Finance minister Mthuli Ncube was forced to table a ZWL$929bn supplementary budget after the 2022 vote had been exhausted.
Expenditure for this year is expected to hit ZWL$1.9 trillion. The laptopgate saga illustrates that corruption is entrenched in ministries, government departments and agencies.
It has also extended to agencies that should provide that oversight role such as parliament. This should frighten President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s administration, which has been on a drive to fight corruption.
