Parliament says ZINARA staff, board must be investigated for abuse of office

Recommendations

The Committee makes the following recommendations:

1. ZINARA, on a case by case basis, with the assistance where necessary of experts, for instance the Zimbabwe Engineers’ Council and the Institute of Zimbabwe Engineers, must endeavour to recover any amounts paid to contractors who did not perform or render services in terms of their contracts. The recoveries must be made within a period of twelve (12) months from the adoption of this report;
2. ZINARA must recover all payments made without any underlying contractual basis, without any Interim Payments Certificate (IPC), for instance the payments to MADZ Construction of US$3,650,000 and ZAR 1,192,500;
3. ZINARA must evaluate and assess the involvement of all its employees during the period covered by the Audit report and take appropriate disciplinary action within three (3) months of the adoption of this report;

The Plumtree to Mutare Highway Project

The Committee makes the finding that the Plumtree-Mutare Highway Project, covered by the Development Bank of Southern Africa Limited (DBSA) and Infralink (Private) Limited was a proper PPP, covered by the definition of a PPP in international law and Zimbabwe’s Joint Venture Act [Chapter 22:22]

The Committee makes the finding that Zimbabwe must express gratitude to the Republic of South Africa and to DBSA for providing a loan of US$ 206 million at a time no other country was willing to provide Zimbabwe with any resources.

The Committee makes the findings that, Zimbabwe must therefore honour its contracts in respect of the Plumtree to Mutare Highway Project.

However, to the extent that some of the conditions of this contracts are now too onerous for ZINARA, the Committee makes the finding that ZINARA must renegotiate these contracts to suit the limited scope and capacity.

Recommendation    

The Minister of Transport is directed, within three months of the presentation of this report to Parliament to present a report to Parliament on the Plumtree-Mutare Highway Project and all other incidental issues including the result or status of the renegotiation process.

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