{"id":96408,"date":"2024-07-12T12:26:18","date_gmt":"2024-07-12T10:26:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/council-officials-in-court-over-us9m-scandal"},"modified":"2024-07-12T14:50:16","modified_gmt":"2024-07-12T12:50:16","slug":"council-officials-in-court-over-us9m-scandal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.cc\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/council-officials-in-court-over-us9m-scandal","title":{"rendered":"Council officials in court over US$9m scandal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. <\/strong><\/span>FOUR Harare City Council officials were yesterday arraigned before Harare regional magistrate Marehwanazvo Gofa facing a charge of criminal abuse of office involving US$9 244 328.<\/p>\n

Never Murerwa (62), Jabulani Mukomazi (44), Denford Zhungu (69) and Tawanda Mutenhabundo (29) were remanded in custody to today for continuation of bail application.<\/p>\n

Murerwa and Mukomazi are employed by City of Harare in the procurement management unit as manager supply chain and principal buyer, respectively.<\/p>\n

Zhungu and Mutenhabundo work at council as principal accountant and engineering technician, respectively.<\/p>\n

During the material time, they were members of the tender evaluation committee for the refurbishment of streetlights on various roads within Harare.<\/p>\n

The four are being represented by George Manokore and Tinashe Toriro.<\/p>\n

Prosecutor Lancelot Mutsokoti alleged that sometime in January this year, City of Harare embarked on a rehabilitation of street lights along the capital\u2019s roads in preparation for the 44th Southern African Development Committee Summit, which will be held next month.<\/p>\n

On January 29, the Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (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 it was listed on the Praz portal on March 19.<\/p>\n

The court heard that 11 companies responded to the tender.<\/p>\n

On March 28, Murerwa allegedly appointed the tender opening committee and included his accomplices on the evaluation committee, which awarded four companies the tender to rehabilitate eight of the 10 lots.<\/p>\n

Due to lot limitation, no company was awarded more than two lots.<\/p>\n

Juluka Endo Joint Venture (JV), a company in which Moses Mpofu is the majority shareholder, was disqualified after failing to meet the tender requirements.<\/p>\n

However, the council workers allegedly connived and awarded the tender of the remaining lots to JV.<\/p>\n

Mutsokoti said the officials disregarded their earlier decision to disqualify JV 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.<\/p>\n

This was contrary to standard of bidding document conditions which provides that bidders who have bad records in execution of City of Harare works ineligible.<\/p>\n

However, acting on their recommendations, the City of Harare entered into a contract with JV and thereafter commenced preparation for an advance payment of the contract value of US$9 244 328,71.<\/p>\n

Yesterday, investigating officer Owen Mutembwa opposed bail indicating that Murerwa and Mukomazi are close associates of Mike Chimombe and Moses Mpofu.<\/p>\n

He said Murerwa and Mukomazi always breached procurement process by favouring Mpofu and Chimombe to win tenders.<\/p>\n

The investigating officer said there was documentary evidence, which exposes Mukomazi approving procurements without following procedure.<\/p>\n

He said the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission had more than 20 witnesses, while 12 had already had their statements recorded.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Zimbabwe Follow Africa-Press<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. FOUR Harare City Council officials were yesterday arraigned before Harare regional magistrate Marehwanazvo Gofa facing a charge of criminal abuse of office involving US$9 244 328. Never Murerwa (62), Jabulani Mukomazi (44), Denford Zhungu (69) and Tawanda Mutenhabundo (29) were remanded in custody to today for continuation of bail application. Murerwa and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":96407,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,6],"tags":[19],"class_list":{"0":"post-96408","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-all-news","8":"category-economy","9":"tag-zimbabwe"},"yoast_head":"\nCouncil officials in court over US$9m scandal - zimbabwe<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"FOUR Harare City Council officials were yesterday arraigned before Harare regional magistrate Marehwanazvo Gofa facing a ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/council-officials-in-court-over-us9m-scandal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Council officials in court over US$9m scandal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"FOUR Harare City Council officials were yesterday arraigned before Harare regional magistrate Marehwanazvo Gofa facing a ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/council-officials-in-court-over-us9m-scandal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"zimbabwe\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-07-12T10:26:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-07-12T12:50:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/sites\/14\/2024\/07\/sm_1720775698.462381.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"372\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/council-officials-in-court-over-us9m-scandal\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/council-officials-in-court-over-us9m-scandal\",\"name\":\"Council officials in court over US$9m scandal - 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