Minister orders highway forensic audit

TRANSPORT and Infrastructural Development Minister Dr Joram Gumbo has ordered a forensic audit to establish the correct cost of the Plumtree-Harare highway amid concerns that it could have been exaggerated or inflated by the contracted companies.

The rehabilitation of the 820-kilometre Plumtree-Bulawayo-Harare-Mutare Highway project was done by Infralink, a joint venture between Zinara and Group Five International of South Africa using a $206 million loan secured from the Development Bank of Southern Africa. In an interview last week, Dr Gumbo confirmed that the ministry had ordered a forensic audit into the project after suspecting that the cost could have been inflated by the contractors. He, however, said the ministry was not on a witch hunt mission but wanted the projects and the contractors to be transparent as far as the road resurfacing and reconstruction were concerned.

“We have ordered a forensic audit into the PlumtreeMutare Road which was said to have cost $206 million. What we want is transparency because these are public funds. We need to be accountable and we must not enter into these deals blindfolded,” he said.

The road rehabilitation project also included the construction of toll plazas. The project has created jobs for scores of people along the communities where upgrading was being done with several local firms sub-contracted for various services. —