Abuse of funds a thing of the past: Zinara
THE Zimbabwe National Road Administration has said the days when public funds were being abused are now firmly behind the entity.
Zinara will also plug all revenue leakages and prioritise improving the country’s road network.
Addressing the fifth Zinara annual meeting in Harare, Zinara chairperson, George Manyaya, said the era of bad corporate governance and corruption at the road authority was over.
Manyaya said Zinara was undergoing a massive clean-up exercise, which involves reconstituting the organisation’s board of directors and executives.
He said in inflation-adjusted terms, Zinara reported a net surplus of $4,1 billion in 2020, up from $1,5 billion in 2019.
“Misappropriation and abuse of funds is a thing of the past,” he said.
“The shareholder cleaned up the board which was also tasked with cleaning up the management team now headed by Fintech guru Nkosinathi Ncube.
“The new executive team has been working very hard to adhere to various recommendations from the audits that were carried out and from Parliament as well.
“Their focus is on transparency, improving staff performance and culture, and coming up with mechanisms and policies that improve performance of the organisation.”
Zinara finance director, Adam Zvandasara, said the organisation had not been spared by the country’s exchange rate challenges.
“We can’t review toll fees every week like what happens with the exchange rate, and so we have come up with our own internal formula which tracks movement based on 10 percentage points,” he said.
“For example, if the rate is $110:US$1, we wait and only review when it hits US$122.”
Over the years, Auditor-General, Mildred Chiri has exposed gross malpractices at the road authority which resulted in the loss of millions of dollars.
Meanwhile, Zinara has distributed nearly $6 billion to all provinces and local authorities for road maintenance in the first quarter of this year under the Emergency Road Rehabilitation Programme (ERRP).
Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister, Felix Mhona, said roads were the heartbeat of development in any jurisdiction and that roads and roadworks helped to reduce poverty through trade facilitation and employment creation.
“It is unfortunate that our road infrastructure is in a bad state and now requires extensive attention,” he said.
“Through his wise counsel, His Excellency, the President, Cde Dr ED Mnangagwa in 2021 declared a state of national disaster on all the roads by promulgating SI 47 of 2021 based on Section 27(2) of the Civil Protection Act (Chapter 10:06) as read with the Roads Act.
“I must say that the alignment of Zinara to its mandate is now bearing fruit,” he said.
“Going into 2022, the Government, through Zinara, is going to expedite funding to all the road authorities to ensure that much ground is covered in terms of road rehabilitation.”