Opinion / Columnist
Corruption at Zimbabwe Power Company
19 Aug 2021 at 15:51hrs | Views
Generally speaking Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC) has suffered so much due to systemic entrenched corruption and mismanagement, especially at Hwange Power station (HPS). Even though the official narrative is that HPS is failing due to ageing equipment, that is merely a tip of the iceberg.
The corruption and clandestine dealings are mainly done at the head office in Harare, (Megawatt building). The corrupt dealings mainly involve big contractors, contracted to carry out major service works on units and suppliers of spares and consumables.
I call to your attention a current incident that involves one of our major units, Unit 5, which is due for a major overhaul, and as such preparations to buy spares and engage service contractors is currently underway.
What usually happens is that the engineers on the ground at HPS create the scope of works to be covered for the overhaul, the list of spares and equipment required to carry out the works, and other various resources requirements like labour etc. The spares requirement list is done having checked inventory so as to prevent an oversupply of already in-stock items. Also gain, the pricing of spares is checked to determine the best supplier at competitive prices.
All this information is prepared and sent to Head Office where procurement and contract drafting is done. In this particular case on Unit 5, there are at least two sticky issues namely,
1. There is relentless insistence and pressure from some persons at Head Office to force engineers to include certain spares on the spares list which the engineers have already proved to be in abundance in inventory. This we suspect is to prop up the overall cost of the major overhaul and hence provide grounds for 'milking' or kickbacks
2. Again there is sustained pressure to force engineers to purchase extraction pumps from (name supplied), who happens to be the 'middleman' service contractor for Unit 5 turbine. This is being done even though engineers have already received quotes from much cheaper and reliable suppliers which can save the company thousands of forex.
3. This (name supplied) contractor is just a middleman who when their services are required by ZPC merely outsource therefore costing the company millions in additional cost. This arrangement, I deem, is deliberate so that some persons from Head Office/ Ministry benefit to get kickbacks.
I urge you to investigate seriously these issues and many others as they have been occurring for quite a long time, impacting on the overall ability to generate power and the high cost of electricity. Engineers at Hwange, if permitted to do their work without undue interference from corrupt forces can and will deliver much-needed power to the nation.
We hope you will speedily get to work
The corruption and clandestine dealings are mainly done at the head office in Harare, (Megawatt building). The corrupt dealings mainly involve big contractors, contracted to carry out major service works on units and suppliers of spares and consumables.
I call to your attention a current incident that involves one of our major units, Unit 5, which is due for a major overhaul, and as such preparations to buy spares and engage service contractors is currently underway.
What usually happens is that the engineers on the ground at HPS create the scope of works to be covered for the overhaul, the list of spares and equipment required to carry out the works, and other various resources requirements like labour etc. The spares requirement list is done having checked inventory so as to prevent an oversupply of already in-stock items. Also gain, the pricing of spares is checked to determine the best supplier at competitive prices.
All this information is prepared and sent to Head Office where procurement and contract drafting is done. In this particular case on Unit 5, there are at least two sticky issues namely,
1. There is relentless insistence and pressure from some persons at Head Office to force engineers to include certain spares on the spares list which the engineers have already proved to be in abundance in inventory. This we suspect is to prop up the overall cost of the major overhaul and hence provide grounds for 'milking' or kickbacks
2. Again there is sustained pressure to force engineers to purchase extraction pumps from (name supplied), who happens to be the 'middleman' service contractor for Unit 5 turbine. This is being done even though engineers have already received quotes from much cheaper and reliable suppliers which can save the company thousands of forex.
3. This (name supplied) contractor is just a middleman who when their services are required by ZPC merely outsource therefore costing the company millions in additional cost. This arrangement, I deem, is deliberate so that some persons from Head Office/ Ministry benefit to get kickbacks.
I urge you to investigate seriously these issues and many others as they have been occurring for quite a long time, impacting on the overall ability to generate power and the high cost of electricity. Engineers at Hwange, if permitted to do their work without undue interference from corrupt forces can and will deliver much-needed power to the nation.
We hope you will speedily get to work
Source - Anonymous
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