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Trust Freddy Herald Correspondent

THE Zimbabwe National Road Administration (Zinara) has now implemented almost all recommendations from the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee after a forensic audit by Grant Thornton as it cleaned up after the abuses committed by previous management.

The forensic report showed that there had been rampant abuse of funds running into millions of dollars under the previous management led by Mr Frank Chitukutuku, with Zinara operating without laid down procedures and general lack of sound corporate governance.

While giving a funds disbursement update recently, Zinara board chairman Dr George Manyaya outlined how they had restored order.

“In our journey so far, we have managed to be compliant with corporate governance ethos,” he said. “For instance, we have held the outstanding AGMs, presenting our accounts and we have solved 75 of the 77 issues recommended by the Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee after the Grant Thornton forensic audit.”

Zinara joined hands with the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission to flush out corrupt individuals within its system.

“If you remember our pledge when we were appointed, we promised the nation that we would partake in this rebranding journey with the transparency it deserves as a departure from the bad boy tag and alleged misdemeanours the brand had been associated with. We continue to dismiss all the bad apples in the system,” he said. “We partnered with ZACC and were the first company to form integrity committees that have helped to detect fraud. We are now publishing our receipts and disbursements as we see today.”

Councils such as Kariba, Norton, Chipinge, Zibagwe and Runde recorded a 100 percent use rate of their allocated funds.

“Of note is the good uptake of funds by local authorities which closed at 88 percent uptake versus allocated budget,” said Mr Manyaya. “This is a commendable and progressive development anchoring our 2024 expectations from the local authorities.”

Zinara collected revenue of $868,59 billion last year, which was 13 percent more than was projected. Of this sum, Zinara allocated more than $500 billion to commitments pertaining to roads.

The revenue mix comprised a 38 percent contribution from all 29 tolling points nationwide while licensing fees contributed 34 percent up from 30 percent in 2022.

“Licensing revenue grew in the year owing to the various initiatives we have undertaken to improve access to licensing services by setting up licensing systems at tollgates, Central Vehicle Registry, Zinara and VID,” said Mr Manyaya.  “This, complemented by roadside enforcement operations and marketing promotions, has improved licensing gradually and we anticipate continued growth in the current year.

“Fuel levies contributed 15 percent, transit fees 11 percent. Overall, traffic volumes through the main revenue streams grew by an average of 7 percent compared to prior year.”