The Sunday News
Dumisani Nsingo, Senior Business Reporter
THE Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF) Company is in consultation with the Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (PRAZ) as it moves to ensure it complies with the country’s procurement policies before commencing the construction of its hotel and convention centre.
ZITF Company chairperson Ms Ruth Ncube said the exhibitions organiser engaged PRAZ to assist it in preparing standard documents and templates to be used in connection with procurement procedures for the construction of its hotel and convention centre.
“We have moved quite pleasingly. We are at a stage where we are now working with PRAZ on the procurement side just to re-check our processes in terms of other compliance issues that we believe we might have omitted. We are at the tail end of finalising the process, after that we are good to go. The process involved documentation re-submission of certain things, reverting of committee that was handling the entire process,” she said.
Ms Ncube said PRAZ has approved most of the processes undertaken towards procurement compliance. Prior to engaging PRAZ, the ZITF Company had started the process of seeking a transaction advisor and has since identified one.
“In terms of financial advisor that process was done and we had an advisor and we went back and said was our process correctly done, that’s when PRAZ came in and it said bring this and that, so we have done that. We are at a time where we are saying should we progress with the one we had chosen or because of lapse of time we go back to re-advertise,” said Ms Ncube.
ZITF Company has set sights on constructing a 300-bed hotel and an 800-seater Convention Centre.
Feasibility studies for the two projects were done between 2011 and 2012 but shelved. However, renewed economic revival prospects and confidence brought about by the new political dispensation prompted the ZITF Company to consider pursuing the projects.
Ms Ncube said construction work was expected to start this year.
“It is difficult now to say when we are likely to start construction work but during 2019 we should definitely ground break,” she said.
@DNsingo
