Zimpapers Logo

Ivan Zhakata Herald Correspondent

Zimbabwe National Road Administration (Zinara) has stopped a US$70 million payment to an alleged bogus company whose terms of reference were not clearly defined in the contract.

This came after it was established that the controversial contract was approved by former Zinara chief executive officer Frank Chitukutuku who is under prosecution for allegedly swindling the company of over US$3 million during his tenure.

It is alleged that an undisclosed amount had already been paid to the company identified as Golden Roads when the deal was stopped.

This emerged in Parliament before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) when Zinara was giving an update on the implementation of the Grant Thornton audit report recommendations. The new team at Zinara led by board chairman Mr George Manyaya and chief executive Mr Nkosinathi Ncube identified the payment that was being done annually and immediately stopped it.

Zinara spokesperson Mr Tendai Mugabe said: “Following the red-flagging and subsequent suspension of payments, Zinara is in the process of legally concluding the matter. Zinara is engaging various key stakeholders and its principals on this matter. As an organisation, we remain resolute in clearing these legacy issues.”

Responding to a question from Norton legislator Temba Mliswa on Monday, Mr Ncube said they have halted payments to Golden Roads. “We have stopped those payments while we continue to seek guidance from our ministry (Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development),” he said.

Mr Ncube also said Zinara had reviewed the Univern contract and come up with an exit clause terminating the deal by December 31, 2025.

He said the reason for extending the contract to 2025 was aimed at ensuring a smooth transition from the system.

Univern made headlines a few years ago after it emerged that the previous board and management made payments to the company fleecing the public entity of millions of United States dollars.

Mr Ncube told the committee they do not have special contracts in their books and those that existed before were referred to the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC).

“They are actually legacy issues which have nothing to do with the current team.”

Legislators commended Zinara for reforms that it had instituted to align the entity to its legislative mandate and good corporate governance practices but queried some of the payments still being made to several companies.

They have called upon the new management to immediately resolve the Golden Roads payment of US$70 million.

Parliament heard the company had taken the legal channel and it was suing Zinara for stopping the payment.

The auditor general’s report exposed the anomaly which led to the arrest of Chitukutuku who was found with several properties worth millions of dollars.