By Correspondent
True to their political word the Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) councilors have managed to suspend the US$344 million Pomona deal between Harare and Albanian entity Geogenix BV.
This was agreed during a Thursday Special Council meeting held at Town House.
The move follows a wide outcry against the shocking agreement which is said to be a scheme by some politicians in high offices to fleece the country.
According to council information councilors have also agreed that a Committee be appointed which will review the agreement.
It appears that the Pomona deal has suffered its expected demise.
However, several factors are already existent which serve as a caution to the euphoria of defeating brazen daylight robbery by politicians.
Former NetOne CEO Reward Kangai says the sheer crafting of the deal in the first place is testament of high-level scheming which may not be defeated by generic channels such as these resolutions.
“So-called Pomona Waste Management contract should bring an awareness of a new and wickedly crafted form of fraud and corruption, i.e. sign a contract that’s impossible to perform, forcing other party to seek termination and then get paid outrageous amounts for breach!’, he said.
Crafty Bastards
According to the Harare-Geogenix BV agreement Harare is liable to pay the company around US$3.5 million in case the agreement is cancelled for whatever reason.
The same scheme was used at NetOne.
According to the then NetOne lawyer Nobert Muhlolo, the company and Formula Telecom Solutions ( FTS) entered into an unlawful agreement in December 2016 as approvals were not obtained from the exchange control authorities and the procurement regulatory authorities.
FTS then declared a dispute and instituted arbitration proceedings in the London Court of International Arbitration as provided for in the lawful agreement.
Resultantly NetOne was ordered to pay FTS US$5 million in damages without goods nor services being rendered to it.
The matter was reported to the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) but no one was ever arrested.
It’s a similar pattern with the Harare-Geogenix deal.
An Agreement of Absurdities
It was doomed from the beginning based on the myriad absurdities contained in the agreement and was bound to be voidable at law.
However, its true cache has always been the provision that if ever the agreement was cancelled for any reason, Harare would be bound to pay a damage fee of US$3.5 million.
Thus whoever is behind the shocking deal would be content with whichever way the deal went.
Either, US$40 payments per tonne of garbage for the estimated 550 tonnes per day delivery or a damage fee of US$3.5 million.
The essence of this is that the quest for money for the crafters of the deal is about to begin now that Harare looks set to cancel the US4344 million deal.
As some critics have explained the agreement was never going to work and and those behind the agreement were always after that US$3.5 million.
The reasons were clear from the start.
Harare does not have the capacity to deliver 550 tonnes of garbage per day. It does not have the vehicles or capacity. It does not have the money. It has already been struggling.
It was simply set-up to fail and pay the US$3.5 million.
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