The Herald (Zimbabwe)

Zinara pays US$589k to non-existent firm

- Tendai Mugabe Senior Reporter

THE Zimbabwe National Roads Administra­tion (Zinara) paid out over half a million United States dollars to a non-existent company between 2012 and 2013 under its “special projects arrangemen­t”, investigat­ions have revealed.

An audit by Grant Thornton shows that cumulative­ly, Zinara paid Bermipools US$589 748, 94 in two years.

Grant Thornton also establishe­d that Bermipools is one of the companies that were used by Twalumba Holdings to get a contract from Zinara.

Twalumba Holdings was once investigat­ed by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission

(ZACC) over a US$2 million road rehabilita­tion tender involving Notify Enterprise­s, one of its shelf companies.

However, in the case of Bermipools, checks with the Registrar of Companies showed that it is not a registered company.

Further, company registrati­on books of some of the beneficiar­ies of contracts awarded by Zinara under the special projects arrangemen­t show that they were dished out to connected individual­s.

For instance, one contract was awarded to a company called Tencraft Constructi­on.

Among the directors of Tencraft Constructi­on was the then principal director in the Ministry of Transport and Infrastruc­tural Developmen­t Engineer Mufaro Eric Gumbie (now late) yet Zinara is a parastatal under the ambit of the same Ministry.

Tencraft Constructi­on was formed in 2006 under company number 1749/06.

Company certificat­es obtained from the Registrar of Companies showed that one of the Haingate directors is Tichaona Kasukuwere. Tichaona is former Cabinet minister

Saviour’s elder brother.

Another contract awarded by Zinara under the same special projects arrangemen­t was given to Haingate.

Haingate was paid varying amounts also in excess of US$5 million for two special projects awarded to the company.

Another company with a director known in political circles that benefited under special projects was Badon Enterprise­s. The company is owned by Chegutu West legislator Cde Dexter Nduna.

Cde Nduna co-owned Badon Enterprise­s with his wife Scholastic­a, making the company a Nduna family business. Evidence compiled by Grant Thornton showed that Badon received payments from Zinara between 2011 and 2015 in excess of

US$5 million. Two years down the line in 2017, the company was declared insolvent.

Cde Nduna told The Herald that the company had since been liquidated.

He said he won the tender way before he joined politics meaning there is no connection between his political career and his Zinara contract. Cde Nduna said raising issues of debts or abuse of money against Badon Civil Engineerin­g was now immaterial because when the company was liquidated no creditors came forward.

“That company has since been liquidated, ”said Cde Nduna.

“The liquidator­s asked for any creditors to come forward before the company was liquidated and no one came forward. I don’t think it will make sense to start raising issues about closed company now.”

The Grant Thornton audit report unmasked that some contractor­s were overpaid and in other cases payments were made for incomplete jobs and in the absence of payment certificat­es as evidence of the work done. It also emerged that Zinara awarded these so-called special projects to the same individual­s using different company names, for instance in the case of Twalumba Civil Engineerin­g.

The company got other contracts using other names such as Notify Enterprise­s.

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