BY MIRIAM MANGWAYA
THE Zimbabwe National Road Administration (Zinara) says it has begun publicising its financial disbursements to local authorities in a bid to enhance transparency and accountability as part of its rebranding exercise.
Zinara said the new approach followed recommendations of the Grant Thornton 2018 forensic audit report, which exposed the rot within parastatals, mostly to do with un-procedural awarding of contracts to private entities.
Zinara acting board chairperson Lizwe Bunu in a statement yesterday said: “As the Zinara board of directors, we believe that aligning Zinara to its legislative mandate is key to the attainment of the targets set in the National Development Strategy One (NDS 1) in terms of infrastructural development.
“However, we cannot achieve this task without addressing historical issues highlighted in the Grant Thornton audit report of 2018. Several recommendations were made to ensure Zinara operates professionally, and I am happy to inform the nation that most of the issues raised in that report have been resolved.”
Government recently promulgated Statutory Instrument 47 of 2021 to facilitate the takeover of road rehabilitation from councils after most roads were damaged due to the excessive rains received this year.
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Zinara targets to rehabilitate 840km of roads across the country, while 8 340km will be regravelled. Government will also reseal 1 290km of roads, regrade 17 093km and reconstruct 427 drainage systems.
Between January and June 11 this year, Zinara allocated Harare Metropolitan province $160 million, the biggest amount among all local authorities, while the City of Bulawayo received $35 million.
The parastatal disbursed a total of $2,3 billion towards road rehabilitation during the same period.
“Most of our surfaced roads have outlived their useful lifespan and the situation was further worsened by the heavy rains that Zimbabwe received during the just-ended rainy season,” Transport and Infrastructural Development minister Felix Mhona said in a statement.
Mhona said after Mnangagwa in February declared all roads a state of disaster, Zinara was tasked to raise US$400 million together with Treasury to rehabilitate the country’s road network.
He said the road infrastructure was facing several challenges that included inadequate funding and the effects of natural disasters.
Earlier this year, the Combined Harare Residents Association together with the Passengers Association of Zimbabwe wrote to Zinara, demanding the publication of the disbursed funds for the year 2020 so that they could be able to monitor and assess the management of road rehabilitation funds.
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