Zimpapers Logo

Lovemore Chikova Development Dialogue

The availing of $17 billion for road rehabilitation by the Zimbabwe National Road Administration (ZINARA) is a move in the right direction, especially in re-emphasising the mandate of the road fund manager.

It was announced this week that Zinara will disburse the funds to road authorities next month.

Zinara’s mandate is to collect funds through vehicle licence fees and toll charges, which is ploughed back on the maintenance and rehabilitation of roads.

The funds are disbursed periodically to all the road authorities which should use them appropriately to maintain roads within their jurisdiction.

It should be made clear from the start that Zinara is not mandated to construct new roads, but to provide funding to the appropriate authorities for their rehabilitation and maintenance.

After disbursing the funds, the road fund manager then follows up to ensure that the money was spent on road works.

The latest disbursement of funds by Zinara is significant in various ways, especially in helping enhance economic activities in the country.

This augurs well with the aspirations under the National Development Strategy 1 (NDS1) and Vision 2030 meant to attain an upper middle income economy.

The availing of money by Zinara will go a long way in rehabilitating road infrastructure that was affected by long periods of inadequate maintenance, rehabilitation and upgrading.

According to NDS1, of the total estimated 84 000km of road network, equivalent to 93 percent of the network is in fair or poor condition and in need of rehabilitation or periodic maintenance.

NDS1 recognises roads as enhancing the economy and promises that more focus will be on development of new roads and maintenance of the existing ones.

In terms of Zinara’s mandate, NDS1 envisages the following programmes being implemented:

• Planned periodic and routine maintenance of existing roads infrastructure;
• Road rehabilitation

The road rehabilitation being funded by Zinara is also in line with Vision 2030 whose document says Zimbabwe will develop a functional road infrastructure that fosters competitiveness of domestically produced goods.

This entails investment in road maintenance and rehabilitation.

With Zinara re-emphasising on its mandate of providing funding for road maintenance and rehabilitation, the organisation falls squarely into the agenda of NDS1 and Vision 2030.

It is the recognition of the importance of road rehabilitation and maintenance that will enhance the quality of roads and their navigability.

Zinara is providing the funds in support of the Emergency Road Rehabilitation Programme 2 (ERRP2) that was launched by President Mnangagwa recently.

The programme came out of the realisation that many local roads had lost their quality, causing many transportation problems.

Among the major urban authorities, Harare Metropolitan province, the third largest beneficiary after the two main Government departments, will receive $1,1 billion, Bulawayo City Council $338 million and Gweru City Council $196,2 million.

Mutare City Council will receive $163,5 million and Masvingo City Council $122 million.

For the eight non-metropolitan provinces, Mashonaland East will get $519,6 million, Mashonaland Central $451,5 million, Manicaland $444 million, Mashonaland West $741 million, Masvingo $361 million, Midlands $661 million, Matabeleland North $524 million and Matabeleland South $495 million.

Presenting the key milestones and funding strategies for ERRP2 to stakeholders this week, Zinara’s recently appointed board chairman Dr George Manyaya explained the road fund administrator’s mandate.

“Zinara is a road fund manager, and our mandate is to fix road user charges; collect such charges or any other revenue of the road fund and allocate and disburse such funds to road authorities in line with the Roads Act [Chapter 13:18], the Public Finance and Management Act, and as per other policy and procedure frameworks,” he said.

“The road authorities that we disburse to are, the Department of Roads under the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure Development, the District Development Fund and the various Urban and Rural District Councils.

“All entities falling under these road authority groups are thereafter responsible for the maintenance of our road networks. Let me emphasise that our role as a fund administrator is limited to availing funding for the road authorities.”

In the past, and before the rebranding exercise that has seen a new board and new management coming in at Zinara, there was some deviation from the mandate of the road fund manager.

But now, there has been progress in correcting the status quo, hence the emphasis on the work of Zinara as the manager of the road fund responsible for collecting funds and distributing them to road authorities.

The availing of the $17 million is a step in the right direction, and a clear indication that Zinara is now ticking again in terms of executing its mandate.

“After funding is received by the respective road authorities, we do follow the impact of the disbursed public funds by monitoring and evaluating their use hence our mandate to audit all the 93 road authorities in the country to ensure that the funds have indeed been used for their intended purpose,” said Dr Manyaya.

“In our engagements with the road authorities, we always emphasise the importance of delivering quality road maintenance to ensure that the limited funds are stretched further over the years so as to avoid a scenario where contractors have to attend to patching work recurrently.

“As you might be aware, during the inauguration ceremony of the board, we pledged to the nation that the rebranded Zinara will be an epitome of corporate governance compliance guided by the values of transparency and disclosure.”

The availing of $17 billion comes after Zinara last year, under the guidance of and support from the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development and Treasury, disbursed $9,5 billion to support Phase 1 and 2 of the ERRP.

Zinara is a corporate body that was established in terms of the Road Act (Chapter 13:18).

The body was established in 2002 in line with Government’s commitment to prioritize the enhancement of a good road network system throughout the country.

The mandate of Zinara is to fix, collect, disburse road user charges and mobilize revenue for roads development and maintenance.

It also encompasses the monitoring of such funds that would have been disbursed for road maintenance to road authorities.

Zinara’s functions include road fund management, providing secure, stable and adequate reservoir of funds, to fund effectively maintenance of the national road network through fixing, collection, disbursement and monitoring of funds usage for preservation, enhancement and sustainable development.

Road authorities are categorised into – the Department of Roads in the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure Development which is responsible for trunk roads, the urban councils responsible for urban roads, the Rural District Councils responsible for rural roads and the District Development Fund.

There are four types of disbursements done by Zinara – routine maintenance, periodic maintenance, emergency and special project fund.

Zinara’s other functions are collecting licensing fees on all vehicles using the public roads, through the Vehicle Registration and Licensing Act (Chapter 13:14) and providing for the charging, levying and collecting of tolls for the use of vehicles on certain roads.

The road fund manager also, through the Road Motor Transportation Act (Chapter 13:15), sets the fee schedule for collection of transit fees for foreign registered public service vehicles.