Transport and Infrastructure Development Minister Felix Mhona said that the government has started disengaging from the Univern contract after it was deemed inconsistent with the Procurement Act.
This came after the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) report made under the 2016 Audit Report presented before Parliament showed that the granting of the contract to Univern was not consistent with the Procurement Act.
Both the Audit Report and PAC established that it was improper for the Zimbabwe National Roads Administration (ZINARA) to pay huge amounts of money to Univern when it had not constructed a single tollgate.
Addressing lawmakers in the National Assembly, Mhona said the government cannot continue with the contract. He said:
“We have started disengaging from Univern. So, we cannot say we have given them a lifetime. They were arguing to say their contracts are ending in 2029/30 but we said alas, we cannot continue with this contract which was a one-paper or whatever.
“We need to regularise and make sure we are in line. We cannot wake up and we don’t want them. We need to take over from them and we have done that in terms of the database, which was also another problem where the database was still within their purview.
“We are less than 24 months for them to end their contracts. We are taking over the systems. We are saying at the end of the day, for a contract that did not have an end date; we managed to sit and say we need this to have finality in terms of the contract arrangement.
“Precisely, I do concur that it was a bad contract, no one disputes that.”
Univern Enterprises is a Zimbabwean-registered firm that supplies IT systems, as well as various goods and services in Zimbabwe.
