Zimbabwe’s Health Minister, Obadiah Moyo, has been arrested for COVID-19 related tender fraud and corruption. The country’s Anti-Corruption Commission accuses Moyo of illegally awarding a R7 billion tender to Swiss company, Drax International to procure PPEs and pharmaceutical drugs.
Health minister Obadiah Moyo has been arrested. He’s at Rhodesville police station. It’s in connection with procurement contract corruption.
— Brezh Malaba (@BrezhMalaba) June 19, 2020
Drax International is allegedly not even a pharmaceutical organisation but a consultancy firm which was only registered this year.
It’s believed that Moyo awarded the mega-contract without following the proper procedures after Drax’s bid was rejected by Treasury.
Initial investigations reveal that Drax hyper-inflated prices – a mask that cost 28-dollars was marked up at 98 dollars.
The contract has since been rescinded by the government.
SABC Correspondent Ephert Musekiwa reports from Harare:
The opposition, the MDC, applied pressure for investigations into the awarding of the tender and to have Moyo and Finance Minister, Mthuli Ncube to be investigated over the awarding of the tender.
Zimbabwe currently has 463 confirmed COVID-19 cases, 4 deaths and 63 recoveries.
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