ZINARA briefs Parly on impressive progress ; resolves 66 issues out of 71
By Staff Writer
THE Zimbabwe National Roads Administration (ZINARA) Monday shared very impressive progress made so far in resolving a cocktail of outstanding issues on the back of revelations that 66 out of 71 identified challenges have since been dealt with.
The new management team has over the last recent years managed to transform ZINARA from the dustbin image littered with corruption and bad governance practices to a budding professional entity which is a going concern on all factes.
Briefing the Public Accounts Committee, Zinara Board Chairman, Dr. George Manyaya advised that the administration had noted the issues raised in the GT forensic report of 2017 as well as the Auditor General’s report of 2021 and much progress had been made to resolve these matters.
“Out of the 71 issues that were raised in the forensic audit, we have managed to resolve 66 issues and five are still in progress.The outstanding matters largely constitute matters that are still pending within the courts of law,” he said.
Manyaya revealed that ZINARA has made headway in clearing the US$200 million debt with the Development Bank of South Africa (DBSA).
“Through the recommendation of the government and Parliament, we were owing US$200 million to DBSA and as of this morning (yesterday), we are only left with US$59 million and once we pay off the debt, it then unlocks some of the funding for some infrastructural development,” he said.
Zinara entered into an interest recalculation contract with the Interest Research Bureau of Zimbabwe (IRBZ) on February 10, 2020 focusing on the DBSA loan and other Zinara bank accounts.
On September 10, 2021, Zinara formally introduced IRBZ to DBSA requesting access to its loan book information to calculate interest.
Manyaya also revealed that they had managed to resolve 66 issues raised in the forensic audit.
The PAC was also updated that in response to issues raised in the auditor general’s report regarding anomalies in the processing of payments at regional offices, Zinara had since decentralized the finance department to have presence at regional offices in order to provide necessary checks and balances ahead of any processing of funds.
The senior management structure has also been given a revamp and new and highly competent individuals who have the right qualifications and experience have since been appointed.
This has seen a remarkable improvement in general management of the administration as these have been instrumental in making right all the key audit findings.
The Public Accounts Committee Chairman, Hon Charles Hwende expressed satisfaction with Zinara’s submissions and encouraged the administration to work towards clearing all other outstanding matters arising from the presentations done today.
He commended the Board and management for making good progress in addressing the issues emerging from the auditor general’s report.
