Stanley Kazhanje the chairperson of the Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC) is alleged to have prepared the tender documents for Wicknell Chivayo’s company without declaring a conflict of interest to the board. Chivayo’s company Intratek was later awarded the US$200 million tender by the ZPC for the Gwanda Solar Power Project. Chivayo is yet to start work on the project almost two years later despite receiving an advance of US$5 million in irregular circumstances.
The allegations against Kazhanje were levelled by ZPC managing director Noah Gwariro. Kazhanje suspended Gwariro in December 2017, over the irregular payment of the US$5 million advance to Intratek without a guarantee. However, in a letter to Kazhanje, Gwariro has challenged the suspension on the basis of the apparent conflict of interest. Part of the letter written by Gwariro’s lawyers and which was quoted by the weekly publication, the Zimbabwe Independent, reads
We address you at the instance of our above-mentioned client and refer to your letter dated 12 December 2017. From the instructions we have, it is apparent that you have a massive conflict of interest on account of the following factors.
Prior to your appointment a(s) ZPC Board chairman, you were contracted to Intratek through your company called Terminal Engineers (Pvt) Ltd. You even prepared the tender documents for the Gwanda Project on behalf of Intratek.
Notwithstanding the foregoing, you never declared your conflict of interest to the Board at several meetings that deliberated on the Gwanda project.
In the premises, it would be wholly inappropriate for you to be involved with ‘investigations’ into allegations of irregularities in the management of the 100MW Gwanda Solar Power Station Project. For that reason, we have advised our client that your purported suspension of him is a nullity and he will accordingly be reporting for duty.
Kazahanje did not respond to questions directed at him.
More: The Zimbabwe Independent