TINASHE MAKICHI
The ZESA Holdings board has ordered a review of several multi-million deals under its transmission unit amid revelations some of the projects could have been inflated to fleece off the power utility, Business Times can report.
Over the last few years, ZESA’s unit, the Zimbabwe Electricity Distribution and Transmission Company (ZETDC) has engaged in shady transmission and distribution deals with local and international companies.
The Sydney Gata-chaired ZESA board has now raised the red flag amid revelations that some contracts have been outstanding for many years.
Some of the projects have been inflated, raising suspicion that some ZETDC top officials could have prejudiced the power utility and could have benefited from the shady deals.
There are indications that some contractors were failing to implement the projects due to lack of funding and capacity, meaning no due diligence was done by ZETDC officials.
Some of the deals that have come under scrutiny include a software supply deal for smart metering which was awarded to Engelec Global and the trans-infrastructure optical fibre cable agreement with Liquid Intelligent Technologies.
Well-placed sources at ZETDC told Business Times that the review of various existing contracts was underway.
The exercise, the sources said, will be completed in the next few weeks.
“There have been a lot of projects that have been outstanding for years without proper execution being carried out. Most suppliers were overpricing their products,” one source said.
The review of projects has, however, annoyed some contractors, who are now accusing ZETDC executives of being corrupt as their projects come under spotlight.
It is understood that some reports have since been filed at the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission.
Efforts to get a comment from ZETDC acting managing director, Lovemore Chinaka, and Gata were futile.
They did not respond to enquiries sent to them.
ZETDC is also said to be losing millions of dollars through its employees who are alleged to be manipulating the billing information technology systems.
According to an internal report seen by this publication, this practice has been happening for years and a number of employees have since been dismissed from work for defrauding ZETDC.
Despite leakages in the IT systems, no proper audit has to date been done by external people to ascertain the extent to which ZETDC has been prejudiced, according to the report.
The report also noted that ZETDC is using outdated billing and prepaid systems prone to manipulation.
There are also reports that some ZETDC employees have been behind a spate of copper cable theft in the country.
The Zimbabwe Energy Workers Union, affiliated to Industrial Global Union, at one point noted that corruption has been going on for many years where for instance millions of dollars were spent on unsuitable meters imported from India and money was paid to companies that never delivered.
