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

On Recruitment

The Committee makes the finding that there was no sound human resources policy or system at ZINARA.

There were no requisite checks and balances and no compliance with sound principles of human resources management.

The Committee made a finding that unqualified people were nepotistically recruited without a process of public interviews, public scrutiny and public competition.

As a result, ZINARA ended up being saddled with incompetent individuals who unfortunately were controlling and running budgets that ran into millions of United States dollars.

The Committee also makes the finding that corruption at ZINARA, amply demonstrated in this report was as a result of unqualified persons deliberately recruited to emasculate the institution.

ZINARA represents a classic example of the capture of a public institution by nefarious individuals whose sole purpose was to loot public resources.

On Structural Issues

As a result of this capture, the Committee makes the finding that ZINARA then deviated from its key functions as defined in the enabling Act, the Roads Act.

It failed to fulfil its mandate under its enabling Act, the Roads Act.

The Committee makes the finding in absolute terms that the model of ZINARA has failed and failed in absolute terms.

The Road Act establishes the Road Fund in Section 13 thereof. It is the one with the principal functions of collecting funds and equitably allocating between road authorities. That function is replicated in favour of ZINARA in terms of section 7 of the Roads Act captured above.

The Executive must seek to harmonise the Roads Act and to resolve the structural contradictions arising out of the creation of an infrastructure, ZINARA, to manage another infrastructure, the Road Fund.

In resolving this issue, the Committee urges the Executive to carry out regional and international studies to establish best practice within six (6) months of the adoption of this report.

The Minister of Transport and Infrastructural Development and indeed the Government of the Republic of Zimbabwe must re-examine the mandate of ZINARA, whether or not it has fulfilled its obligations and or its policy expectations and aspirations from its formation and consider whether the issue of roads and roads maintenance is still best served by ZINARA or another agency. In carrying out this evaluation, the Committee recommends that the Government works with experts such as the World Bank and the African Development Bank. The Minister is obliged to present to Parliament his evaluation and assessment report by end of September 2021.

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