Harare City Council rejected a US$350 000 locally-developed enterprise resource planning (ERP) system from Harare Institute of Technology (HIT) and paid a staggering US$2,1 million to a foreign company.
This has prompted residents to say senior officials at the Harare City council want to continue abusing loopholes that are found in the manual system currently in use as they await migration to the US$2,1 million facility.
This also comes at a time residents are bearing the burden of a shambolic billing system, plagued by double billing, lost housing lists and opportunities for looting of millions due to inadequate and makeshift account systems, after the city council dumped its high-end ERP system in March 2019.
The HIT ERP system, known as Local Authorities Digital Systems (LADS), which was snubbed by Harare City Council, has been successfully deployed to 20 councils including Mutare Municipality which has notably scooped best service delivery awards.
The LADS automates several local authority services such as financials, administration, engineering and technical services, land management, social services and artificial intelligence and links them to the national public financial management system.
This comprehensive system features 38 modules, packaged into six key categories, including financial management, which encompasses billing, receipting, asset management, procurement, accounts receivable, accounts payable and debt checking, along with five other categories that provide a holistic solution for local authorities' digital needs.
The LADS system also has a software application called Instipark, a smart parking solution, e-Musika for seamless revenue collection, Business Licencing for billing and receipt of licences and an Amanzi-Water meter reading app.
Despite all these locally-based solutions, council has not been receiving remittances from its Rufaro Marketing business unit since 2022 and this reportedly prejudiced the embattled city an estimated US$2 million over that duration. Rufaro is now a property company with an extensive portfolio.
Harare Residents Trust director Mr Precious Shumba said it was disheartening to know that the city has gone for five years without a functional, transparent and accountable billing system, since March 21, 2019.
"Residents, businesses and Government departments, ministries and agencies are being billed based on estimates which distorts the financial position of the City of Harare. They always exaggerate the amounts owed when in reality they are not giving residents much services," he said.
He also claimed that Harare City Council was being run by cartels that dictate how funds are allocated for council services.
"If it is true that they have rejected the billing system developed by the Harare Institute of Technology, then the Government should guide the City of Harare to do the right things in the interest of residents.
"Our question is if the HIT designed the billing system specifically for Harare or they are simply imposing a billing system that does not meet the needs and expectations of the Harare City Council."
Combined Harare Residents Association director, Mr Rueben Akili said: "The non-functional ERP system is deliberate for the purpose of people looting council resources: it might be land, it might be other assets that the local authority have."
Mr Akili also said city council's cashiers could be taking advantage of the absence of the ERP system to siphon funds to speculate on the foreign currency black market.
"Right now, city council cashiers are making money by converting US dollars paid in local currency, merely because they are using a memory flash to keep financial records which are then submitted to the head office in that memory stick. After paying your bills in US dollars, they capitalise on the manual system loophole. They pay in local currency and then simply update the information contained in the memory flash, and you really wonder what will happen if the memory flash gets corrupted."
Harare Mayor Jacob Mafume denied that they had rejected a local solution.
"What we did is we went to tender and this local partner did not tender. An ERP is governed by the procurement laws and we are required to go to tender," he said.
"So we have gone to tender and we have been asked by PRAZ to re-tender. The local entity is free to be among the people who will tender. What we have done is that we were given an order by the Parliamentary Public Committee and the Auditor-General to reinstate the ERP that was there."
Head and founder of LADS Africa, a start-up under the Harare Institute of Technology, Eng Tererai Maposa, said the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Act provided exemptions for local research institutions from tendering processes.
"A research institution is not compelled to go for a tender process," Eng Maposa said.
"We are currently working with 20 local authorities, but for cities, we only have Mutare and Masvingo and we did not go through that tender process.
"It's very sad that in Harare, people are still queuing to check their rates balance, whereas in Mutare and Masvingo, residents are paying parking fees, rates bills, and participating in budget consultations using a WhatsApp Chatbot, and they can make any inquiries from their homes," he said.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
According to Section 16 (1) (e) of the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Act, procurements from institutions or organisations that are engaged in research and development, including universities, colleges, and other institutions of higher learning, are exempt from the tendering process.
Additionally, Statutory Instrument 134 of 2017, which provides regulations for the Public Procurement and Disposal of Public Assets Act, further clarifies this exemption in Section 14.
Eng Maposa said the clauses suggest that local research institutions, such as HIT, might be exempt from tendering processes when providing unique goods or services, particularly for research or development purposes, adding that LADS was a unique product.
LADS Africa presented the proposed US$350 000 ERP system to the full council last year, but were yet to receive a response.
Eng Maposa said the uptake has not been encouraging, adding that local institutions were not ready to support Education 5.0.
"The uptake has not been so encouraging in local authorities. People are not adopting the system at the rate and pace that we desire."
