By MUKWIMA CHILALA
IT is factually incorrect that the Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) did not follow the due process of the tender procedure when awarding a contract to the Copperbelt University (CBU) to develop an online Tax platform at a cost of $3 million, sources close to the deal have disclosed.
ZRA had initially engaged TATA, an Indian firm at a contract sum of US$16 million but the company failed to meet the desired expectation hence the decision by the Authority to source a local institution, the CBU at a much lower and favorable rate with local professional expertise.
And the sources have described the report from the Public Accounts Committee suggesting that the deal was irregular as untrue, factually incorrect and sad because the Attorney General and the Zambia Public Procurement Authority did give a go-ahead.
The Public Accounts Committee on Monday, heard that ZRA did not follow the due process of the law when awarding the contract to the Copperbelt University CBU to develop an online tax platform at a total cost of $3 million.
Speaking when the Ministry of Finance and ZRA appeared before the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee, Ministry Permanent Secretary in charge of Development Cooperation, Monitoring and Evaluation Danies Chisenda said the awarding of the contract was based on a Memorandum of Understanding that the ZRA had with CBU.
But the Source told Millennium Radio that prior to 2019 when they made a decision to develop their own tax system, Zambia through ZRA contracted Tata India to develop TaxOnline 1 at a total cost of US$16 million with the US$8 million being for development and US$8 million was meant for support and maintenance.
The source said the ZRA had no access to the confidential tax database which was domiciled in India at the time Tata was contracted the company had no track record of developing any tax system.
They said the Tata contract was coming to an end and therefore it was prudent for ZRA to engage a cost effective local solution, build local capacity and empower local programmers.
The sources explained that it was at this point that the only institution that had developed their own systems and software was CBU and was assisting the Ministry of Finance to resuscitate IFMIS.
They argued that the ZPPA Act allowed single sourcing of a government institution by another government institution provided reasons were valid and acceptable.
They said CBU was contracted with the approval of the ZRA Board, and that ZPPA had no objection while the Attorney General approved the contract at a negotiated cost of US$3.5m and support and maintenance cost of US$300,000.
The sources added that CBU developed the system according to specifications and all milestones were signed off contrary to assertions that the contract was irregular as modules were delivered by CBU but ZRA could not deploy the system after the change of leadership at the Authority.
And the source said that the system was jointly designed and developed by CBU and ZRA programmers as capacity building was embedded in the project design.
