ZINARA swiftly adopts strong corporate governance , allots ZW$568 bln for road maintenance
Business Reporter
THE latest data released by the Zimbabwe National Roads Administration (ZINARA) demonstrates a new commitment to align operations to strong corporate governance standards.
As opposed to the past opaque and conflicted modus operandi , the roads administrator has to date managed to resolve 75 of the 77 issues recommended by the Parliamentary public accounts committee after the damning Grant Thornton forensic audit which exposed huge anomalies.
The roads authority has also partnered with ZACC and were the first company to form integrity committees that have helped to detect fraud over and above the release of Financial Accounts statements well on time.
Presenting the 2023 annual report Wednesday, ZINARA board chairperson ,Doctor George Manyaya revealed that a huge chunk of of collected revenue in the period ending December 31 2023 went towards roads rehabilitation.
“In the year ending 31 December 2023, ZINARA collected ZWL868 billion against a revised budget of ZWL 768billion. Out of this amount, ZWL536billion was channeled to road related commitments,” he said.
Manyaya underscored that during the period most local authorities were able to acquit themselves well in terms of utilizing the funds disbursed to them which is a testament of the positive results training workshops with Road Authorities on proper utilisation of the road funds.
“Councils such as Kariba, Norton, Chipinge, Zibagwe and Runde, just to mention a few recorded a 100 percent utilisation rate of their allocated funds. Of note is the good uptake of funds by Road authorities which closed at 88% uptake versus allocated budget.
“This is a commendable and progressive development anchoring our 2024 expectations from the Road Authorities, ” he said.
Quizzed by the media as to why the authority was neglecting new roads construction in needy areas, Manyaya reminded the public to be aware of how ZINARA operates.
” The funds that we collect as ZINARA are meant for rehabilitation and maintenance of existing roads through Road Authorities and not construction of new roads.
“Furthermore, as ZINARA, we do not undertake the execution of road infrastructure projects. Rather, we only manage road user fees and administer these through our partners, the Road Authorities,” he said.
He said in the just ended year, significant progress was made on the country’s roads with 31,6 km roads rehabilitation being undertaken in Harare , 18,8 km asphalt overlay, 308 km spot gravelling, 411,78km pothole patching and in terms of bush clearing, covered 1,962km.
“Other projects outside of Harare include Somgolo bridge which is 178 metres long that was repaired at a cost of US$67,272.00.
“The completion of this project has enabled improved access to critical services and markets as the bridge connects Tsholotsho and Lupane districts. Another key project was the rehabilitation of the 10km stretch on the Binga Siakobvu road at a cost of US$2,950,815.50,” Doctor Manyaya said.
In other projects, Rwenya bridge was worked on at the value of US$869,000. This bridge connects Manicaland and Mashonaland provinces.
