Ministry of Energy overruled tender procedures - Chibuye
Ministry of Energy overruled tender procedures - ChibuyeBy Ndinawe Simpelwe
Wed 19 Oct. 2011, 14:00 CAT
THE procurement authority has revealed that the Ministry of Energy and Water Development overruled some tender procedures in the procurement of the country's oil. Zambia Public Procurement Authority (ZPPA) director general Samuel Chibuye said the ministry was unable to follow the advice given to it by the ZPPA tender committee.
Chibuye revealed that it was mandatory for the ministry to get back to ZPPA every time negotiations were concluded in order to give the final approval of the deal.
"The current Glencore contract for the procurement of oil was not concluded as per procedure. The Ministry of Energy did not come back to us for the final confirmation. We gave the ministry the estimated price for the deal and they were supposed to come back to us after the negotiations but they never did," Chibuye said when he appeared before the energy tribunal chaired by Wynter Kabimba, set up to look into the corrupt practices in the energy sector during the previous government.
Chibuye said the ZPPA gave the ministry an estimated total of US $3.56 billion for the procurement of 1.44 million metric tonnes of oil.
He said the ministry awarded the contract to Glencore at US $1.2 billion for the same amount of oil without getting final approval from ZPPA.
"They (ministry) always come back but for this one they didn't and we only learned that the amount was negotiated downwards," he said.
Asked whether the committee operated without interference from the ministry, Chibuye said the committee worked independently although there were times when it was unable to follow the procedures.
Chibuye also revealed that the ZPPA was not consulted when Dalbit was contracted to refurbish oil tanks in provincial headquarters of the country.
The tribunal further asked Chibuye why Dalbit was awarded the contract to refurbish and build oil tanks when it did not have the expertise for the job.
"We assumed that the ministry had done the investigations to know whether Dulbit was specialised in oil tank refurbishment. We did not know that this company had never done such works before. The fact that they had the finances to carry out the work when the government didn't made us award them the contract," said Chibuye.
The tribunal later told Chibuye that Dalbit had no expertise to build or refurbish oil tanks and that it had to sub-contract another company.
Labels: GLENCORE INTERNATIONAL AG, MINISTRY OF ENERGY AND WATER DEVELOPMENT, SAMUEL CHIBUYE, ZPPA
posted by MrK @ 2:32 PM
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