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Zvamaida Murwira Senior Reporter

Procurement by public entities need more than just following the law, but other measures such as setting the adequate and standard specifications to avoid some potential overcharging by prospective suppliers like the problem seen recently when Parliament approved highly priced laptops and computers.

Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (PRAZ) chief executive Mr Clever Ruswa said there were unexplained gaps that required investigation into how the administration of Parliament handled its procurement of laptops.

Administratively the procurement seemed to have been done in terms of the law, he said, but questions remained on whether the specifications which attracted high prices ranging around US$9 000 per laptop were prudent.

Mr Ruswa said this on Tuesday evening during Star FM current affairs radio programme.

He was responding to a question on what lessons can PRAZ draw from the procurement arrangement by the administration of Parliament that saw Treasury cancelling the award and blacklisting companies that were awarded the tender for allegedly inflating prices.

“This is one issue which we are still discussing in the public procurement space. This is sort of a deviation from the norm in terms of what is provided by the law,” said Mr Ruswa.

He said with regard procedural requirements, the administration of Parliament complied with the law in terms of publication of the tender, allowing bidders to participate among other issues and prices from suppliers ranged between US$1 200 and US$13 000.

“So when one looks at the administrative processes one will absolve them to say everything is above board. But we will have to say, did they follow the necessary steps, this is where I am saying we could see some gaps and this is where other Government departments are looking at, to say in this instance the expectation is that when you are doing a procurement of such a magnitude you must also reach out to the bidding community through marketing consultations and it is provided for in the law,” he said.

“After doing that you draw up your terms of reference or specifications. We will see if that was done, if not then that is what then leads to some of these issues especially in terms of pricing. Because when you are looking at a price range of US$1 200 to US$13 000 something is definitely wrong with the specifications, the question is do we really need that kind of specification. Is it not a case of one delivering bananas in a limousine or using a Rolls and Royce instead of a Mazda 323.”

The two companies are Blinart Investments P/L, which wanted to supply 79 desktop computers and Mid-End Computers and Hardware wanted to supply 173 laptops. The laptops were each valued at US$9 264,48 while desktop computers were each valued at US$3 076,61.

Mr Ruswa said PRAZ was also vigil about companies that seek to win tenders through putting up low bids only to escalate their prices once they win the tender such as what happened in the celebrated Kunzvi dam project.

“Kunzvi dam has a history. Previously it was won by Sinohydro and then the tender was cancelled because they could not start work at the expected time. This time around, yes they came up with a price of US$65 million and it was awarded to a contractor who had US$109 million but if one is to look at their (Sinohydro) initial documents, the same supplier had a price of US$171 million and there was no justification on how were they going to deal with other aspects, so from the procuring entity’s side and the regulator this is a case where we would say it is low balling technique, somebody just gets in there, you start escalating your prices when you have parked your equipment on site,” he said.

“These are the things that the nation might not know, that it happens in this industry, we are also benchmarking with what we call the engineer’s estimates and engineers give an estimate.”

Construction of Kunzvi dam is going on well and water supply challenges in Harare and Chitungwiza are set to be permanently addressed with the multi-million dollar Kunzvi Dam in Mashonaland East province as the Second Republic moves to upgrade the capital city’s water supply.

Nanchang Engineering, now Makomo Engineering won the tender to construct the dam which will expand Harare’s water supply and end water shortages in the eastern and northern suburbs in line with the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1).

Prior to work on Kunzvi Dam, the contractor has built Muchekeranwa Dam in Mashonaland East which was recently commissioned by President Mnangagwa, constructing Semwa dam in Mashonaland Central province, Silverstroom in Centenary and has completed the Mtshabezi-Umzingwane dam.