Ministry of tourism is grossly underfunded

Seventy-seven million dollars was allocated for water projects and ongoing projects will continue and commencing of one new project. Therefore, the budget is developmental although the funds remain in adequate. The budget also proposed to continue with the funding of dam construction, water supply and sanitation programmes that were started in 2017. However, there is underfunding of the dams that were planned to be completed in 2018. The amount allocated is less than the required funding for project completion. There is a finance gap of $25 million required to complete Causeway, Gwayi/Shangani and Marovanyati dams. Work will continue on water supply projects that were not completed last year in particular, Binga rural water supply and the project is likely not to be completed as the amount allocated is 33% of the total bid. There is no allocation for works at Dande dam as suggested in the previous year in order to avoid high future costs. Dande dam is a critical dam that services Guruve and Mbire districts.

The Committee observed that the Ministry had outstanding certificates for work already done on Tokwe-Mukorsi dam, which is $58million. Continued funding of the borehole drilling exercise continues and the amount that was allocated for four boreholes and four weirs per constituency is $2 million. If this funding rapporteur continues, it would enable the country to achieve one borehole per ward policy over time.

Increase in allocation on climate change programmes which is cloud-seeding – although the amount is less than the required amount, for cloud-seeding, an allocation of $500 000 has been noted. However, the allocation for the Ministry did not cater for national mitigation and adaption projects. The recommendations for these observations Madam Speaker, are that the budget is allocated a marginal increment in the operational budget for 2018 as a way of reducing the accumulation of arrears on recurrent expenditures. Retention revenue is expected to complement the consolidated revenue. However, the performance of revenue from the retention fund is not known. The Committee recommends additional funding for operational budget in order to clear arrears accumulated since 2016. The Ministry must be allocated funds to purchase new vehicles.

THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: Order Hon. Member. Vehicle ADI 8920, the owner of the vehicles, may you please go and remove your vehicle; otherwise you will find it clamped. Hon. Simbanegavi, you may continue.

HON. SIMBANEGAVI: Thank you Madam Speaker. The Committee strongly recommends that the Forestry Commission should be capacitated through Government grants in order to motivate key personnel. The Committee also advocates for the Executive to clear the confusion on the management of the Aforestation Fund which is a subject of debate between TIMB and the Forestry Commission. The Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning should support the capitalisation of parastatals on a rotational basis in order to capacitate them. The Committee further recommends that dam construction of Causeway-Gwayi-Shangani and Marovanyati should be allocated more funds in order to complete them. This will help to reduce costs associated with price changes. The Ministry of Environment, Water and Climate should be encouraged to diversify the financing options for water projects in order to avoid delays in completion of projects.

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