by Bruce Zvandasara
In its quest to nip corruption, Government has ordered a fresh forensic audit into ZESA’s alleged unprocedural conduct in the awarding of tenders after the preliminary report recently tabled before the Ministry of Energy and Power Development was reported to have been marred by collusions from ZESA staff.
A renowned London headquartered consultancy firm; Price Water House Cooper (PWC) forensic auditors carried out the preliminary audit. The auditors reported to the Minister of Energy and Power Development, Dr Joram Gumbo of the suspected collusions between Management and staffers which in turn distorted their findings.
PWC was again ordered to conduct a fresh probe into the parastatal with the blessings of the Government and to have access to everything including human capital which was reported to have been warned by ZESA management not to contribute or risk consequences of cooperating with PWC. The Audit is expected to be ready by mid October 2018.
According to insiders in the PWC, ZESA workers were afraid to participate in the probes and some were falsifying issues. This forced the internationally recognised Forensic Auditors to approach Government and acknowledge that they were not confident with their report due to the collusions.
ZESA was at the centre of the storm following revelations that the country’s controversial power-generation projects were inflated by more than US$500 million.
Harare Post made efforts to speak to some of the people who were pressured not to speak and it was revealed that there were elements within the Management involved in duping ZESA revenue by illegally tapping into the direct lines unmetered and receiving proceeds through the back door fattening their pockets.
ZESA torched a storm and irked the public when they awarded the entrusted country’s critical multi-billion-dollar energy projects to dodgy businessmen who have criminal records, ranging from fraud to drug trafficking. Wicknell Chivayo’s 100 megawatt Gwanda solar project and the questionable procurement of 11 000 faulty prepaid meters torched the storm.
The first report from PWC pointed to dereliction of duties from management with regards to disbursement made on special projects without technical input.
It was revealed that the projects which were funded by ZESA and contracts awarded were poorly managed as evidenced by poor workmanship, incomplete works, irregular termination of contracts, payments of works not done and uncertified overpayments and lack of adherence to contracts terms and conditions.
