It is my proposal that there should be an Institute of Engineers of Zimbabwe who are supposed to be part of the audit of the forensic auditors before an audit is produced on a department which is otherwise engineering inclined or a department which has some technical specifications that are not just money or white collar related. This is an engineering department and it would have been better placed to have the Institute of Engineers of Zimbabwe to be part of this report but alas, it was not like that.
So, going forward, when there are special reports like this, the Auditor-General needs to be guided accordingly. Why do I say this? The issue of road maintenance and structural development is actually too technical. I will give you an example Madam Speaker, when you come on the Chair, that when you are dealing with a road, you are first dealing with a surface that you call base 3, then there is base 2 and 1, there is the crusher-rung then there is the surfacing. This is too technical for somebody to just go and serve by pen if they can adjudicate the quality whether it is completed or it is not completed. It is not easy for somebody who is not an engineer to adjudicate and to deal with the issues that are enshrined in this report, save for the issues of the software, money, percentage quantum, that they can quantify but not the issue of the quality of the workmanship that has been exposed in this report. It is my thinking and view that as I sat in that Public Accounts Committee, there was need for engineers to be part of this report. There was need also not to be regimented in terms of malicious intention on producing this report. A report should not be targeted to individuals but it should be targeted to the system of doing things.
I was part of the Committee that brought the contractors that brought the people that were being contracted by ZINARA. All those engineers could do was just to come and laugh at the Committee because the questions were not in-tandem with what happens in the engineering sector. I could only just fold my hands and watch because at that point, I would not be able to interject and intercede because that was not my role. Gavi rinobva kumasvuuriro. What went wrong went wrong at inspection and we cannot correct it at this point.
I can only propose that any future forensic audits in the Engineering Dept should involve engineers. Madam Speaker, the graders that were bought by ZINARA, it has come out of this report that they have got what is called snow-ploughs and they have become a laughing stock to the forensic auditors, Madam Speaker Ma’am. A snow plough is a snow plough in countries where there is snow. Here in Zimbabwe, it is called either a – [AN HON. MEMBER: It does not have a name.] – It has got a name that moves power in terms of the power that either the dozer or the grader has. It is called a dozer blade or a grader blade that can move mounts of earth in replacement of a dozer. So in a way, ZINARA bought the equipment at a price of two for one and should be applauded instead of being castigated. It is because this forensic audit was conducted by an accountant more than an engineer and they would have got quite some credit if they had employed engineers to actually advise them on what they are calling snow plough. It is a snow plough in England. Here in Zimbabwe, it is a dozer blade and it moves at 80 kilowatt power if the grader has got so much power. It is using that force to actually replace the dozer which can come on to site for money in terms of establishment. Using just one grader, you are as though you have established two pieces of equipment. Madam Speaker Ma’am, “kurova shiri mbiri nedombo rimwechete.” So for that to happen, we need to involve the right people in the right places, not the square plugs in round holes.
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