CHISHIMBA LIES AGAIN

Sat, 01 Apr 2017 11:15:55 +0000

THE Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) has dispelled with contempt allegations by United Progressive Party president, Saviour Chishimba, purporting that the authority recently awarded a K140 million contract dubiously.

ZRA said yesterday the value of the contract for the design, supply and delivery of an invoice management system is K84 million and not the purported K140 million Mr Chishima mentioned.

This is contained in a statement issued by ZRA corporate communications manager Topsy Sikalinda.

According to ZRA Commissioner General, Kinsley Chanda, the said contract had not yet been awarded as alleged by Mr Chishimba but that the authority wrote a notice to all the bidders indicating the best evaluated bidder and the value of the proposed contract to allow for any substantive objections.

“At present, this has been appealed against and the due process is being followed to ensure that all concerns from aggrieved parties are addressed,” he said.

Mr Chanda explained that the tender process was still in progress and was being done transparently and in strict adherence to the provisions of the Public Procurement Act (PPA) no. 12 of 2008.

The commissioner general has assured Zambians that the contract would be offered to the best bidder in accordance with the law.

“The authority is a public institution meant to serve every Zambian regardless of their political affiliation. It is therefore NOT right for any politician to start dragging the authority into politics,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mr Chanda explained that pursuant to the law, the authority in line with Section 26 of the Public Procurement Act and the Public Procurement Regulations Statutory Instrument no. 63 of 2011 issued a tender to facilitate the procurement of the design, supply and commissioning of an invoice management system.

Mr Chanda said the closing dates of submission of bids was Friday 3rd February, 2017, and at the time of closing a total of 10 bids were received.

He said the bids were subjected to a three-phased evaluation criteria – preliminary, technical and commercial – in accordance with the tender evaluation criteria that was provided for in the solicitation documents.

“After evaluation the best bidder was recommended to the Zambia Revenue Authority tender committee in accordance with the Public Procurement Act no. 12 of 2008 for award,” he said.