A COMMISSION of inquiry into the affairs of Harare City Council (HCC) operations has raised concerns over the lack of transparency on leasing agreements between Rufaro Marketing, a subsidiary of the municipality, and tenants.
Rufaro Marketing is a business unit under HCC which runs all council bars as well as other properties in the capital.
The business unit has been leasing its 86 beer outlets from the 1980s, with the last liquor unit being leased in 2012.
In January last year, Rufaro Marketing chief executive officer Daniel Mutiwadirwa was suspended for allegedly failing to produce lease agreements of tenants occupying council assets.
Speaking during a public hearings convened by the commission of inquiry chaired by former High Court judge Justice Maphios Cheda, Rufaro Marketing financial director Ngoni Chimbalu suggested that some lease documents may have been tampered with.
“When Mutiwadirwa was suspended, the letter which was written to him clearly specified to him that ‘you should hand over the documents, the fundamental documents and the arrangement to hand over the fundamental documents’.
“We don’t know whether they’ve been tampered with or not. We did not have any contracts in our offices,” Chimbalu said.
The executive said he had requested information from the council's management accountant.
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Chimbalu acknowledged that there were tenants who were subletting properties under Rufaro Marketing’s purview, denying the local authority of potential revenue.
“There are some legal implications, I think, which we need to deal with because we are saying those tenants are not licensed,” he said,
However, Mutiwadirwa dismissed the allegations which were laid against him saying there is no way he will tamper with lease documents.
“Certainly, my belief is that those documents are there,” he said.
