By Correspondent
Harare Council and City Parking have been accused of shady deals under which over US$1 million has disappeared.
According to Local Government Auditors a US$908 000 payment was made to Smart Park Africa with another of US$400 000 paid to Park Rite.
Both the funds couldn’t be thoroughly accounted for.
However, on its part Council alleges that it had deals with both Park Rite Africa and Smart Park Africa from South Africa.
Shady Deals
Council engaged Park Rite Africa to replace EasiHold in 2014 for a joint venture in the management of the parking business.
The deal with EasiHold, called EasiPark Harare, had broken down, with each party accusing the other of clandestinely opening bank accounts to divert funds.
In came Park Rite, which was a joint venture between some Israelis and Zimbabweans.
However, it had no known experience in managing on-street and off-street parking in cities.
Park Rite Africa was expected to supply, install, manage and maintain parking meter systems in the city.
However, none of that happened resulting in the massive financial losses.
These revelations were made by the Local Government Ministry Financial Adviser Thompson Marufu during the ongoing Commission of Inquiry hearings.
Marufu said City Parking, together with a host of council’s business units were last audited in 2019.
“City Parking was formed around 2013 but the MoU was only crafted in 2022.
Marufu said as the Financial Advisor he had not even seen the document.
“The Ministry advised them to utilize their office space but they are still hiring.
“Twenty percent is supposed to be paid for rent of assets, but without transparency and accountability, it’s hard to know how much they bag from the collections.”
City Parking has also been accused of indulging in currency manipulation.
The entity allegedly charges in USD but its remittances to City of Harare are in ZWL.
Marufu alleged that the murkiness around its business makes it vulnerable to theft and corruption.
