THE Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation ministry is in the eye of a storm after it awarded a multimillion-dollar tender to a company linked to Home Affairs minister Kazembe Kazembe for the installation of electronic devices at the National Sports Stadium.

Leabridge Technologies, which is reportedly owned by Kazembe, has emerged as winner of a US$2,5 million tender to mount cosmetic electronic devices at the stadium.

These include modern electronic turnstiles, CCTV cameras and monitors as well as an automated venue operations centre (VOC).

The tender was initially awarded to Securico (Pvt) Ltd and it was not clear yesterday why the government had stripped the first winner of the rights.

Also raising suspicion is the discrepancy of the amount on Leabridge’s bid document and the actual total that they have been awarded. Documents show that Leabridge’s tender was worth US$2 318 935,12, yet it was awarded a tender with a value of US$2 577 334,01. Critics have also questioned the timing of the publication of the winning bid.

A letter from the ministry shows that Leabridge was awarded the tender on August 5, 2021, but it was only made public this week, which gives other bidders no chance to appeal.

Other companies that bid for the tender are Suvkin Enterprise, Slow Grand Engineering, Securico, Safeguard, Radio Solutions, Sports Health Centre, Sonic Signals, AC Controls and Setworth.

In a letter dated August 5, Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation secretary Thokozile Chitepo said: “The ministry writes this communication informing you that tender DOMOO3/2021 being tender for the supply, delivery, installation and commissioning of automated turnstiles systems, electronic ticketing system, venue operation control, biometric access control and CCTV for National Sports Stadium has been awarded to Leabridge Investments (Pvt) Ltd T/A Leabridge Technologies of 26 Harvey Brown, Milton Park, Harare, at a tender value of two million five hundred seventy-seven thousand three hundred thirty-four and one cent (US$2 577 334. 01).”

No comment could be obtained from both Chitepo and Kazembe yesterday.

Kazembe resigned as executive chairperson of the company when he was appointed minister in 2017.

Government is desperate to beat the Caf deadline to renovate the stadium to meet minimum requirements for hosting international matches.

The stadium needs to be fully modernised and brought up to international standards.

The continental football governing body has since banned the stadium from hosting future international games until outstanding issues have been completed.

Caf has indicated that the Warriors’ home World Cup qualifying match against Ethiopia next month will be the last game that the National Sports Stadium will host international matches until outstanding issues are taken care of.

The stadium was initially banned from hosting senior teams’ matches in 2020, but was provisionally cleared later in the same year after the government made partial renovations in the dressing, doping control and first aid rooms and the media centre.

Areas that Caf has redflagged include the installation of bucket seats and the renovation of the stadium’s Barena.

Caf also wants a functional VOC with a good overview of the stadium equipped with CCTV monitors.

It should have an override capability over public address system in case of emergency announcements. The VOC should be staffed and serve as command centre for security and safety operations.