Councillors lose property

BULAWAYO City councillors have lost some of the properties which they had allegedly accumulated through unscrupulous means as they were failing to either pay rentals or buy them off, it has been learnt.

The local authority last year attracted the wrath of the Government regarding a number of corruption allegations resulting in the eventual expulsion of two of the city fathers including the Deputy Mayor, Mr Gift Banda. It has since emerged that the local authority has acted swiftly in implementing some of the recommendations that were set by the Government instituted tribunal, which has seen some of the councillors lose properties which they had accumulated over the years.

Responding to written questions the local authority’s spokesperson, Mrs Nesisa Mpofu, confirmed that while some councillors had approached the council to draw up payment plans for reimbursing what they owed for the properties they owed, they had also repossessed properties to those that had failed to pay back what they owed.

“Following the recommendations from the ministry, some councillors surrendered the stands or leases, some councillors made payment plans with the financial director, some arranged for stop orders from their allowances. We have repossessed for those that have not done any of the above-mentioned while a few councillors who had made applications were stopped and these were not finalised because of the Government directive. Council has also been communicating with the parent ministry on the progress of the recommendations set out in the tribunal,” said Mrs Mpofu.

Regarding the Egodini bus terminal rehabilitation project, which had also attracted scrutiny from the Government, Mrs Mpofu revealed that they were engaging the Government so the project can go ahead.

“Council had conducted a financial model which was sent to the ministry on the viability of the Egodini project. With regards to the Environmental Impact Assessment, Terracotta is working with the Environmental Management Agency. The contract was concluded and led on the basis of Financial Model highlighted and this was communicated to the ministry. This financial model was in existence during the negotiations,” said the spokesperson.

The $60 million project was officially handed over to the South African civil engineering firm Terraccotta Private Limited last year with the two officially signing the contract. However, the tribunal had noted a number of irregularities on the whole tender and recommended that the local authority either suspends the signing of the contract and renegotiates based on the feasibility study or consider re-tendering the project with a comprehensive brief of the requirements based on the feasibility study.

Another project which had attracted the Government’s scrutiny is the tender for the installation and commissioning of a cremator at West Park crematorium, as it was learnt that four years since the tender was awarded and part payment made, the contracted company — Masen Engineering — was yet to deliver the crematorium. The tribunal had recommended that the local authority should invoke the liquidated damages of the contract, to recover what had been paid to them as advance.

Mrs Mpofu however, revealed that as a local authority they had made a decision to try and get the cremator as compared to recovering the money.