ZINARA committed to road rehab and maintenance funding

The mandate of the Zimbabwe National Road Administration (ZINARA) as enshrined in the Roads Act (Chapter13:18) is to fix, collect, and disburse road user charges to four Road Authorities namely the Department of Roads, the District Development Fund, Urban Councils and Rural Councils.

ZINARA is committed to executing this mandate and has over the past two years recorded key milestones in terms of aligning the Institution to its legislative mandate.

In the past two years, ZINARA has consistently published all its disbursements to various Road Authorities as part of the new Board and Executive’s thrust to epitomise transparency and accountability in the handling and utilisation of road funds.

In terms of the law, it is fundamentally critical to highlight that the funds disbursed by ZINARA are meant for road rehabilitation and maintenance and not for the construction of new roads. Furthermore, the roads to be maintained should have been gazetted for them to qualify for ZINARA funding.

is imperative

to note that most roads that are being constructed in new residential areas in various towns and cities are not gazetted and therefore do not qualify to be rehabilitated or maintained using ZINARA funds.

ZINARA also wants the nation to know that the construction of new roads does not fall within the purview of its mandate and that it does not prescribe to Road Authorities on which roads to prioritise in terms of maintenance and rehabilitation in their areas of jurisdiction.

In 2022, it is key for the nation to appreciate the model under which road works were undertaken in various areas. Apart from the works that were done by the Road Authorities on their own, other road works were done by the Government through the Emergency Road Rehabilitation Programme. Several roads especially in major cities were attended to under this arrangement.

In keeping with the dictates of the Roads Act and the need to ensure that ZINARA funds were utilized with probity, the Administration undertook to capacitate the Road Authorities through training on several issues.

other issues before disbursing the funds.

ZINARA’s initial budget for disbursements for 2022 was 17 billion ZWL but to cater for other variables during the year this was later reviewed to 30. 6 billion ZWL through a supplementary budget.

This supplementary budget was made available to cover costs that the Road Authorities incurred in their existing contracts because of movements in the exchange rate and other factors.

The process of disbursing the funds to the Road Authorities in some instances took longer because of the need for Road Authorities to submit due diligence reports to Treasury. The due diligence reports were meant to confirm whether the pricing in each funding request was fair, before ZINARA effects payments. This was part of the Government’s efforts to realise value for money from the contracts entered between the Road Authorities and their suppliers.

As part of the due diligence process, Road Authorities were required to review all their contracts and by the close of the year, some Road Authorities were still undertaking this process. some Road Authorities overcommitted and entered contracts that were way above their allocations. Going forward ZINARA urges the Road Authorities to budget within their allocations and ensure timely acquittals of disbursed funds. This is prudentially important in terms of value preservation of their allocated funds.

Another area of concern noted by ZINARA in 2022 was the low quality of work by some road authorities. There is a need for road authorities contractors to ensure sustainable quality work because the resources that ZINARA have are limited compared to the work that needs to be done on our roads.

As at 31 December 2022, ZINARA had disbursed ZWL 30, 609, 119, 156, 00 which translates to USD 86, 926, 910, 86 at inter bank rate. This amount also covered the supplimentary budget that was also approved during the course of the year.

ZINARA’s commitment to the execution of its mandate is unparalleled and is ready to pay the outstanding requests for funding within the available budget allocations for the projects that overlapped into 2023 once all the required due diligence processes with Treasury are completed.