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The Japanese Bank of International Co-operation had cancelled a US $1 million concessionary loan to Zimbabwe meant for the digitalisation of the nation's telephone system, the 'Zimbabwe Independent' reported on Friday. The bank cited gross corruption which saw the disappearance of tender documents in March this year as the reason, the report said. The tender documents disappeared from the tender board offices in unclear circumstances. Although two former tender board employees have appeared in court over the issue, nothing has been recovered.
The phase two digitalisation project, which would have seen the creation of 87,500 new telephone lines on completion, has now officially been cancelled. The government failed to present a report on the disappearance of the documents, forcing the financiers to refuse to extend the sponsorship period.
As a result, Nippon Telecommunications Consulting Co Ltd, a Japanese company working for TelOne on a consultancy basis, is closing shop. Nippon provided the technical engineering services on the digitalisation programme to TelOne. Yausaki Kawabata, Nippon Telecommunications Consulting (NTC) managing director, confirmed that his company would be closing operations by the end of this month.
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
