10 firms bid for Byo parking tender
TEN companies, including TelOne had by close of business on Thursday submitted their papers for consideration for the long-standing Bulawayo parking management tender, Sunday News can reveal.
The tender was re-advertised last month after close to 10 years of a back and forth toil in awarding the tender, after the local authority was dragged to court by one of the initial bidding companies — Megalithic — that accused the council of irregularly cancelling their tender when the company had won it.
After the courts finally gave council the go ahead with the tendering, the city’s Town Clerk, Mr Christopher Dube last month flighted an advertisement in the local media calling for expressions of interests from companies for the designing and installation of the parking management system.
In the latest developments it has emerged that by the close of the bidding process on Thursday, 10 companies had submitted their papers, with the local authority now expected to deliberate on the submissions. Apart from TelOne, the other companies that are vying for the tender are City Parking, Tax GI Global, GKB Designs and Associates, Dande Mutande, UBIO, School of Java, Lauvax Trading Private Limited trading as ProPark, Grey Africa and Tendy Three Investments.
It is the bid by City Parking that is likely to send tongues wagging as the company had been blacklisted by the local authority’s audit team after it refused to cooperate on investigations that it had pampered four Bulawayo councillors with five-star treatment in a bid to influence the parking management system.
City Parking is a private company wholly owned by the Harare City Council which is mandated with on and off-street (parkades and parking lots) parking services in the capital. According to a council confidential report, the council’s audit committee decided to bar the Harare company from any future dealings as a means of protecting the Bulawayo City Council.
Allegations against the parking management company were that they had hosted the four councillors — Sinikiwe Mutanda (Ward 10),
BANKS should constantly update the central bank on the amount of money they need to meet demand from depositors, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) Governor Dr John Mangudya has said.
Ordinary Zimbabweans are struggling to access cash from banks despite the introduction of new notes and coins in November last year. Cash is, however, readily available on the parallel market where it is sold at a premium. Dr Mangudya told our Harare Bureau that continuous engagement between RBZ and banks would help address cash shortages.
“In an inflationary environment, it is difficult to get enough cash for everyone, but we are working towards that. We are continuously increasing the cash supply. We expect banks to give us their level of demand then we give them cash. We want to engage them more and continuously address the cash shortages,” Dr Mangudya said.
The apex bank would continue to drip-feed cash into the market “so that people can get the money when they want it”, he said.
Monetary authorities also believe that the inflationary environment is making salaries increase at a faster rate than they are importing cash.
D r Mangudya said in addition to rising
Sikhululekile Moyo (Ward 17), Frank Javangwe (Ward 13) and Mlandu Ncube (Ward one). The councillors had their hotel bills catered for by the parking management system company and were also taken for a tour of the projects managed by the company. The move was seen as trying to influence council to award the company the tender, something which was however, denied by the councillors.
Contacted for comment, Mr Dube confirmed that the tender was closed on Thursday but said he had no further details on the companies that had submitted their bids.
“Tenders are very sensitive processes. May we allow processes to take place with no interference. If tenders are not handled properly, we risk litigation from the bidders. I can only comment about tenders once the winner has been notified and the unsuccessful ones advised,” he said.
The initial bidding process brought the city’s tendering system under scrutiny, with accusations of corruption among councillors and directors flying around. First, Easipark, the South African company that was favourite to clinch the parking deal, was disqualified on demand for cash from individual depositors, the number of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) seeking cash for handouts to vulnerable communities had also increased.
“The other demand has been coming from NGOs, in particular the World Food Programme. They are giving out cash through the Food Assistance Programme. So the demand for cash is very high. They sell US dollars to us and we give them the local currency.”
Asked if Zimbabwe will ever return to a situation where there will be more money in the banks than in the streets, Dr Mangudya said: “My answer is yes, that is our desired trajectory and that is where we are going. But at the same time, we still believe in a cashless society and we want
to see a allegations of attempting to bribe members of the procurement board to swing the bid in its favour.
The company was re-admitted and the tendering process re-done after consultations among stakeholders. Easipark was disqualified again, after it failed to attend a compulsory tender briefing meeting, which then saw Megalithic being awarded the tender.
RBZ confident of ending cash shortages
reduction in the cost of doing digital transactions. There are too many variables which are there in the economy.”
Central bank statistics indicate that the stock of cash circulating in the economy as at December 31, 2019 stood at $1,1 billion out of the $34,5 billion held in banks as deposits. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) — a key advisory body — has since advised the RBZ to increase the amount of cash in circulation.
“Following the MPC decision in October 2019 to increase the quantity of bank notes and coins in circulation to try and reduce the inconvenience being faced by the public in accessing their cash at banks, the bank has imported additional banknotes and coins to ameliorate this challenge
“The bank also advised of gradually injecting additional notes and coins into the economy to lessen the inconvenience caused by the shortages of physical cash to the transacting public. In addition, the bank introduced credit enhancing measures to incentivise and encourage banks to lend long term,” said Dr Mangudya in last week’s Monetary Policy Statement (MPS).
About 50 percent of the country’s bank deposits are held by about 200 individuals and companies. Of the $34,5 billion bank deposits, $22 billion (64 percent) is in local currency and $12,5 billion (US$785 million) or 36 percent is in foreign currency.
“It is this liquidity or stock of money that is the key focus area that the bank is mandated to manage to ensure that it does not cause inflation and or bring volatility to the exchange rate,” said the Governor.