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

On Harmonisation

The Committee noted a disconnect between the issue of passenger safety and the licencing regulatory regime. Passenger safety is important. Passenger safety is secured by the qualifications of the driver, fitness of the motor vehicle, the insurance thereof and the licencing of that vehicle.

At the present moment, different departments perform these functions, in particular the Vehicle Inspection Department, Road Motor Transport Department, Zimbabwe Revenue Authority, Central Vehicle Registry and insurance companies.

None of these know what the other is doing. In other words, the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing.

The Committee proposes a harmonised system, a Zimbabwe Integrated Transport Management System (ZITMS), which can easily be achieved through digitalisation to ensure that ultimately one registration takes place which consists of multiple registration.

Failure to comply with procurement laws

The Committee makes the findings that ZINARA failed to comply with the procurement laws of the country, in particular the Procurement Act [Chapter 22:14].

Not only that, particularly in the case of Univern’s three software contracts, the Committee made the finding that ZINARA deliberately misled the State Procurement Board which then purportedly issued a condonation in some of the contracts.

The Committee makes the finding that millions of dollars were lost through failure to go to tender, overpayment of contracts or the manipulation and alteration of contracts after the Tender Board had made approval subject to certain conditions or the deliberate misleading of ZINARA.

The Committee makes the finding that ZINARA Management and employees abused their offices where they fraudulently and corruptly benefitted from the breach of Zimbabwean laws.

Univern’s Contracts

The Committee makes the finding that the private company known as Univern Enterprises (Private), with the complicit cooperation of ZINARA Management abused Zimbabwe, abused ZINARA and abused the principles of sound corporate governance in respect of the following:

1. the contracts relating to the supply of graders;
2. the contracts relating to the maintenance of those graders;
3. the three software agreements relating to tolling system, motor vehicles licencing system and the transit fees and fuel levy system.

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