FOUR Harare City Council (HCC) officials who were yesterday arraigned before Harare regional magistrate Marehwanazvo Gofa facing a charge of criminal abuse of office involving US$9 million were remanded in custody with their bail hearing continuing today.
The accused are Never Murerwa (62), Jabulani Mukomazi (44), Denford Zhungu (69) and Tawanda Mutenhabundo (29).
They are being represented by lawyers George Manokore, Tinashe Toriro, Musindo Hungwe and Nelson Mashizha.
Investigating officer Owen Mutembwa opposed bail yesterday.
He said the accused persons failed to follow standard operating procedures for bidding.
Mutembwa alleged that Zhungu did not follow due process and favoured Juluka Endo Company, which did not meet standards, awarding it the tender to rehabilitate streetlights along the capital’s roads.
However, defence counsel Mashizha argued that the witness had not provided evidence that the alleged bank statements were, indeed, fake and fictitious.
He said in the meeting where the evaluation process occurred an auditor was present hence everything which transpired was above board.
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Mutembwa objected to the submissions stating that he did not find anything related to the re-tendering of Juluka Endo Company.
Mashizha tendered a document stating that there was a letter which showed that the Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (Praz) addressed the re-tendering issue.
The defence argued that the value of prejudice stated in Form 242 may be wrong since there was no evidence that Juluka Endo Company received US$9 million.
Mutembwa further opposed bail saying if freed, the accused persons may be attacked by the general public since people are angry about mismanagement of funds in local authorities.
Prosecutor Lancelot Mutsokoti alleged that in January this year, City of Harare embarked on a project to rehabilitate streetlights in Harare in preparation for the 44th Sadc Summit set for next month.
On January 29, Praz granted a few specific exemptions to facilitate the expeditious completion of various key projects in time for the summit.
Consequently on March 15, a tender was published in the Government Gazette and was flighted on the Praz portal on March 19.
The court heard that 11 companies responded to the tender.
On March 28, Murerwa allegedly appointed the tender opening committee and included his accomplices on the evaluation committee, which awarded the tender to rehabilitate eight of the 10 lots to four companies.
Due to lot limitation, no company was awarded more than two lots.
Juluka Endo Joint Venture (JV), a company in which Moses Mpofu is the majority shareholder, was disqualified after failing to meet the tender requirements.
However, the council workers allegedly connived and awarded the tender of the remaining lots to JV.
Mutsokoti said the officials disregarded their earlier decision to disqualify Juluka Endo and awarded the tender to the company, whose owners also own Synlak (Pvt) Ltd, a company which in 2019 was awarded a tender for a biogas digester and failed to deliver.
This was contrary to the standard of bidding document conditions which provide that bidders who have bad records in the execution of City of Harare works are ineligible.
However, acting on their recommendations, the City of Harare entered into a contract with Juluka Endo and thereafter commenced preparation for an advance payment of the contract value of US$9 244 328,71.
