Faith Duri
Masvingo City Council efforts to track Podilla Ventures Private Limited company a bogus entity that vanished in thin air with US$ 137 713 after being awarded a tender to supply 545 drums of bitumen to the local authority keep falling through as they are failing to locate it.
In an interview with TellZim News Town Clerk Engineer Edward Mukaratirwa said they are still in search of the company though initial efforts have yielded no meaningful result.
“We haven’t got them yet and we are still in search of the company but we have gone to the company registrar’s office to try and locate them and if they are registered under a new name we can be able to find them as well as getting compensation. They have all the records there,” said Eng Mukaratirwa.
Seemingly it looks like council has failed to locate the company because this is exactly the same statement Mukaratirwa gave in April after being asked about the update on the bitumen supplier company.
In 2016 council purchased 545 drums of bitumen from Podilla Ventures Private Limited at US$ 137 713, but to date the consignment has not been delivered and money paid has not been recovered by the time of audit in August 2021.
Podilla Ventures Private Limited is a mining and construction equipment company that specializes on pothole patching and machines, earth moving equipment, surveying and geo testing equipment, bituminous products, thermoplastic and cold plastic road marking paint and line marking machines.
This is not the first time council has been put to question about contractors, in 2019 they were questioned after Mutual Construction Company which benefitted from a confirmed US$ 4 million from council coffers failed to construct the prolonged Mucheke Trunk Sewer project.
The consultant’s contract involved two tasks which were project design and costing and project supervision.
