HARARE City Council acting town clerk Josephine Ncube yesterday defended the executive’s decision to buy 18 top-of-the-range luxury vehicles without going to tender, saying their Chinese funding partners in the $144 million Morton Jaffray Waterworks project wanted to avoid dealing with suppliers on the European Union sanctions list.
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The purchase of the vehicles raised a stink in council and Parliament amid allegations of misuse of public funds.
Residents have also threatened to boycott payment of council rates demanding transparency in the administration of the loan facility provided by China Exim Bank.
Addressing members of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Environment, Ncube said: “On vehicles, there was a provision of $8 million for the purchase of various equipment including motor vehicles and other equipment to capacitate the City of Harare and that they would be purchased locally from a system agreed to by the contractor and ourselves.
“This contract is negotiated. We negotiated, but with respect to the issue of vehicles, there are certain things which are tied to the loan, for example, the issue of companies which may be on the EU sanctions list. It’s a condition of this loan that vehicles won’t be purchased from companies on that list and this came from the provider of the funds.”
Ncube also revealed that the $144 million loan facility was not enough to address the city’s water woes, adding that at least $2,5 billion was required to adequately resolve the crisis.
Meanwhile, Harare mayor Bernard Manyenyeni, whose council is investigating the purchase of vehicles without council approval and going to tender yesterday said preliminary results of the probe would be made public this week.
