by Bruce Zvandasara

A renowned London headquartered consultancy firm; Price Water House Cooper (PWC) forensic audit into the ZESA tender scandals has made shocking revelations in their report they submitted to the Ministry of Energy and Power Development yesterday.

Government has ordered a forensic audit into ZESA after it was revealed that there was an unprocedural conduct in the awarding of tenders. ZESA was the centre of the storm following revelations that the country’s controversial power-generation projects were inflated by more than US$500 million.

ZESA is rocked by a massive tender scandal in which Government has entrusted the 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 report which is not yet available for public was submitted to the Ministry yesterday from morning till late afternoon. The report is not yet available to the public.

According to insiders, PWC report revealed that proper procurement procedures were not followed in the selection and awarding of tenders. The report further points out to gross incompetency, negligence and inefficiency by ZESA top officials.

A source interviewed by the Harare Post said that there was a dereliction of duty 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.

The report implicates ZESA Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Joshua Chifamba, Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC) managing director, Noah Gwariro and former Permanent Secretary, Patson Mbiriri.