Biti takes ZESA Chief to task over ‘corrupt’ tenders

The Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) management has appeared before the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee, (PAC) chaired by Tendai Biti, to answer on the power utility’s Forensic Audit Report which revealed anomalies.

Meanwhile, corruption running into hundreds of millions of US dollars has been unearthed at the power utility after the PAC grilled ZESA Executive Chair Sydney Gata today.

Gata was found wanting when Biti and his team’s line of questioning got too hot for him handle and he requested to be given time to prepare written answers.

Biti also said Parliament would want to know who exactly in the Office of the President imposed the Sakunda deal on Zesa.

During the probing, Gata confessed that the ZESA Dema deal was “bad”. ZESA corruptly awarded a US$250m tender to Sakunda for the installation of the Dema Power Plant.

Gata was ordered to return to Parliament on 22 March.

It also came to light that diesel-powered generators were used to produce electricity at 30 cents per kilowatt hour, yet it would have been cheaper to import power from Mozambique at 5 cents/kWh.

Meanwhile, some of the parliamentary meetings going on today include the Portfolio Committee on Budget, Finance and Economic Development, to hear oral evidence from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) on the on the Monetary Policy Statement and the foreign currency auction system.

The Portfolio Committee on Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare, is also sitting to hear oral evidence from the Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare on:

1. Government Policy regarding distribution of food under the Food Deficit Mitigation Programme;

2. The disbursement of COVID-19 pandemic relief grants to vulnerable groups.

Meanwhile, members of the public interested in virtual attendance the meetings as observers are welcome to access the meetings via Parliament’s social media pages, or in the case of meetings indicated as Zoom meetings, members of the public may contact the Parliament’s Public Relations Department.

-Zwnews