‘No going back on roads rehabilitation’
KUDAKWASHE CHIBVURI
The Zimbabwe National Roads Authority board chairman Dr George Manyaya says the ongoing roads rehabilitation will continue as the resources remain available and will be channeled towards the intended purposes.
Speaking at the launch of Gwebi River by Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister Felix Mhona, Dr Manyaya said his Board has managed to plug leakages and ensure availed resources are put to good and proper use.
“Through the leadership of our Minister Felix Mhona, we have come up with innovative funding models to ensure the roads rehabilitation programme is funded sustainably and we have been funding road authorities week in week out. We mean business and we will meet out objective,” he said.
Zinara is enjoying a new path far from corruption and looting that characterised the old board.
This has prompted comments from different stakeholders including the Public Accounts Committee that recently expressed satisfaction on how work was being done.
“I want to take this opportunity to assure all Zimbabweans that as Zinara, obviously in collaboration also with the fiscus, we have funding to continue doing the road rehabilitation and it’s a continuous process which we are doing across the country and it will continue to be done like that.”
Zinara has disbursed at least $43.8 billion to road authorities under the Emergency Road Rehabilitation Programme 2 (ERRP2) in 2022, representing a 21% increase in inflation-adjusted terms from the prior year.
Zinara’s financial performance has also seen a significant improvement, with the organization collecting $113.1 billion in inflation-adjusted road user fees in 2022, a 43% increase compared to 2021. This positive financial trajectory can be attributed to the organization’s efforts to restructure and improve its corporate governance practices, which have helped plug leakages and ensure the efficient utilization of funds.
“The funds are there, and we will continue to make sure that we provide them. As you know, the news is Zinara is collecting and disbursing. And this has been made possible through the restructuring and the issues of corporate governance where we are saying that the funds that used to leak, or the leakages that we used to have, we have stopped them and we have the funds.”
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