News / Local
Mnangagwa's govt says 'disengaging' from controversial Univern contract
13 Feb 2023 at 05:21hrs | Views
Transport minister Felix Mhona says the government has started disengaging from the controversial Univern contract after it was deemed inconsistent with the Procurement Act.
This came after the Public Accounts Committee (Pac) presented a report before Parliament made under the 2016 Audit Report.
The findings of the Pac report were adopted by Parliament that the granting of the contract to Univern was not consistent with the Procurement Act and evidence was produced to show that the procurement board never sat.
One of the things that both the Audit Report raised and the Pac made was that it was unfair for the Zimbabwe National Roads Administration to pay huge amounts of money to Univern when it had not constructed a single tollgate.
Mhona told the National Assembly that they cannot continue with the contract.
"We have started disengaging from Univern. So, we cannot say we have given them a lifetime. They were arguing to say their contracts are ending in 2029/30 but we said alas, we cannot continue with this contract which was a one-paper or whatever," Mhona said.
"We need to regularise and make sure we are in line. We cannot wake up and we don't want them. We need to take over from them and we have done that in terms of the database, which was also another problem where the database was still within their purview.
"We are less than 24 months for them to end their contracts. We are taking over the systems. We are saying at the end of the day, for a contract that did not have an end date; we managed to sit and say we need this to have finality in terms of the contract arrangement.
"Precisely, I do concur that it was a bad contract, no one disputes that," Mhona added.
This came after the Public Accounts Committee (Pac) presented a report before Parliament made under the 2016 Audit Report.
The findings of the Pac report were adopted by Parliament that the granting of the contract to Univern was not consistent with the Procurement Act and evidence was produced to show that the procurement board never sat.
One of the things that both the Audit Report raised and the Pac made was that it was unfair for the Zimbabwe National Roads Administration to pay huge amounts of money to Univern when it had not constructed a single tollgate.
"We have started disengaging from Univern. So, we cannot say we have given them a lifetime. They were arguing to say their contracts are ending in 2029/30 but we said alas, we cannot continue with this contract which was a one-paper or whatever," Mhona said.
"We need to regularise and make sure we are in line. We cannot wake up and we don't want them. We need to take over from them and we have done that in terms of the database, which was also another problem where the database was still within their purview.
"We are less than 24 months for them to end their contracts. We are taking over the systems. We are saying at the end of the day, for a contract that did not have an end date; we managed to sit and say we need this to have finality in terms of the contract arrangement.
"Precisely, I do concur that it was a bad contract, no one disputes that," Mhona added.
Source - Newsday Zimbabwe
