The government has suspended all road projects in Midlands Province until the completion of investigations into what officials have described as an over-pricing racket that is bleeding the economy.
This comes amid reports that some service providers pegged their prices based on black market exchange rates as high as $2 000 to the United States dollar.
The speculative exchange rates have been blamed for causing exchange rate volatility and subsequent exorbitant price hikes.
In an interview with State media on Tuesday, Midlands provincial roads engineer Denis Mupfurira said:
The Government has suspended all road projects in the Midlands as it embarks on value-for-money investigations aimed at fighting the pricing racket that is bleeding the economy.
… generally, we have the US$7 million Boterekwa Road dualisation, and the Mberengwa Centre-Mataga Road construction among others that have been suspended pending the value-for-money investigations.
All projects running will have to be reviewed because there was generally overpricing being done and this is not good for the economy.
We are not saying all projects or tenders were being inflated, but most of them and soon we will able to know which ones will proceed and which ones will need retendering after the investigations by the Government.
In September this year, it emerged that the Parliament of Zimbabwe was billed US$10 000 per laptop, which is way above general market prices for laptops.
In another overpricing incident, a 2kg pack of chicken was claimed to be worth US$30 against market prices of a maximum of US$6. | Chronicle