Maravi

Surveyor raises more questions on RP Capital deal

Surveyor raises more questions on RP Capital deal
Written by George Chellah
Thursday, February 19, 2009 7:32:29 AM

THERE are a lot of unanswered questions surrounding the Zamtel and RP Capital Partners deal, a local chartered valuation surveyor has said.

Commenting on the controversy concerning communications minister Dora Siliya's signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with RP Capital Partners Limited at a contract sum of US$ 2 million [about K10.3 billion] in total disregard of advice from the Attorney General's Chambers, the source, who is a qualified chartered valuation surveyor expressed suspicion in the manner the Zamtel and RP Capital Partners deal was handled by the government.

"What is supposed to happen is that if a firm valuating a company comes from abroad, they are supposed to find a local partner who is registered in Zambia because legally they can't practice on their own without a local partner. Foreign firms should register that assignment as a project with the Valuation Surveyors Registration Board (VSRB), which is based in the ministry of local government," the source said.

"But I have not heard of any request for proposals for tenders in the case of valuating Zamtel. The only time we heard was when the MoU was signed."

The source, who is also a registered member of VSRB, said he was not aware if RP Capital Partners had partnered with any local company as per requirement.

"I suspect RP Capital Partners just did it directly without even partnering with any local company. But if these RP guys proceeded to value Zamtel that valuation will be a violation. Of course, the MoU is just a promise for a job but it's a serious commitment also because it means that they have virtually moved on," the source said.

"There are a lot of questions that need to be answered in the Zamtel deal. If RP Capital Partners had local partnering, it would have been explained in both the Vice-President and Dora's defence."

The source further explained that: "If RP Capital Partners were bidding they will find a local partner and bid with him or her and it's a local partner who will be bidding as a lead consultant. That's what we do in valuation. We have experience in bidding with foreign companies and we have always taken the lead and a foreign company has always come in as a sub-contractor for valuation.

"Since the competence is already there locally, a foreign company will only be coming in because it has huge capital or specialised machinery. Those are some of the specific cases where you bring in foreign companies. But for things like buildings, land or let me just say Zamtel, you don't need a foreign company."

The Valuation Surveyors Act Chapter 207 of the Laws of Zambia 3(1)(a) states:

"Notwithstanding the provisions of any other written law, no person, unless he is registered as a valuation surveyor, shall-Prohibition of un-registered persons from practicing. (a) practice valuation surveying of land or use any name, title or style containing the word “valuer”, “valuations”, “evaluating”, “evaluation”, “appraiser”, “appraising” or “appraisal', or any other word implying his being in the business of valuation surveying. (2) Any person who contravenes the provisions of subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a fine not exceeding two thousand five hundred penalty units or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding one year, or to both. (As amended by Act No. 13 of 1994)."

And the source wondered why the government had to engage a foreign company to value Zamtel when there were highly qualified locals.

"As locals we did valuations for all the companies that were privatised by the Zambia Privatisation Agency (ZPA). It's the Zambian companies that undertook the valuation of former parastatals and that is a lot more work than Zamtel. We have enough surveyors locally. In fact, if they brought in anybody today, he is not likely to have better qualifications than the local people," the source said.

"We have enough qualified surveyors to undertake such an assignment like I have said earlier if it was tendered locally. The other question that needs to be answered is, who costed the job at US$ 2 million? Because I have never seen a valuation for US$ 2 million, if you can compare, how much did ZPA pay all those valuations for parastatals? I don't remember ZPA paying US$ 2 million for all the parastatals that were privatised."

The source disclosed that Zamtel was actually once valued less than 10 years ago.

"I remember we did a tender which was won by a company on the Copperbelt. All the buildings, transmitters etc it was done by just one local firm from the Copperbelt and they didn't get US$ 2 million for that job. That I know because if that firm on the Copperbelt was paid that kind of money, they would have retired from practice because US$ 2 million is not small money," said the source.

Labels: DORA SILIYA, RP CAPITAL PARTNERS

posted by MrK @ 7:32 AM