Secret tender causes uproar

Thu, 28 Sep 2017 13:00:24 +0000

By NATION REPORTER

AN UPROAR has arisen among Zambian accounting firms following a decision by the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) to award assets and property valuation of important state companies to a select team of international accounting companies through a selective tender.

The Zambian firms feel that the valuation of important national assets should have been subjected to an open tender.

Among the major companies being valued include the Zambia Railways Limited, Zamtel, Indeni Oil Refinery, and Zambia-China Mulungushi Textiles, among others.

Zambian companies have questioned IDC’s decision to secretly tender for the valuation exercise instead of advertising it to make it more transparent and afford indigenous companies a chance to participate.

“The listed companies ar State-owned enterprises and as such, they should have made a public tender invitation process so that every firm could have a chance to participate. Unfortunately, they have chosen to do it secretly so that other firms do not participate at all. What criteria have they used to come up with their selected list of valuation firms that they have invited?

“How can they expect a reasonable tender to be completed within seven days without giving full details of the work involved? We suspect corruption is involved in this tender and they (IDC) should be exposed so that every firm is given an equal right to participate,” one of the sources said.

But sources within IDC told the Daily Nation that there was no corruption in the process but that the corporation was working under a very strict time-frame and wanted reports that would be credible and acceptable internationally hence the use of top accounting firms in the country.