ZINARA audit report- what the MPs said- Edwin Mushoriwa

HON. MUSHORIWA: Thank you Mr. Speaker.  I stand to give my voice in terms of the report which is before the House.  Mr. Speaker Sir, let me start by acknowledging the work that was done by the Public Accounts Committee chaired then by Hon. Tendai Biti.  The process of coming up with this report and the process of getting the enquiry into ZINARA was not an easy task.  It is a process that took a lot of time, a lot of months and there was a lot of fights from the Executive side, also the delays by Hon. Minister of Transport to present the forensic report.  There was non-cooperation by ZINARA executives.  There was non-cooperation from those companies that benefited from the public resources and also Mr. Speaker Sir, even the process of coming up with this report took a longer time even in terms of people putting a lot of work.

The secretariat at Parliament played a significant role and I just want to put on record our gratitude also to the former Chairperson whilst we are welcoming the new chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee.  Mr. Speaker, the situation that prevailed at ZINARA was one typical case of a fund that was abused.  First and foremost, if you look into the ZINARA, the way it came about, I think there was no proper planning in terms of how that fund was supposed to be managed. The legislation was there but if you then look on the qualifications of the people that were managing ZINARA, none of them including the managing director had a proper qualification, not a degree or diploma. In fact you will be shocked to know that the Finance Director had only one qualification. The qualification was a Bible Certificate from Ezekiel Guti’s College, nothing else. This was the person that was supposed to be the Finance Director to oversee millions, not only of RTGS but millions of US$. The end result was looting of public funds in an unbelievable manner. This is the reason why I fully support that ZACC should actually get in and let justice prevail.

There are certain things where women at ZINARA every week would go to have their hair done at Red Rose and other salons, including the gentlemen, they had the benefits. The executives had fully paid gym equipment at their houses but again they were being paid for their gym membership at other gyms.

The worst case goes to the issue of contracts that were being awarded at ZINARA. Contrary to its mandate, ZINARA’s job was supposed to collect the money and give it to local authorities so that they do the work, but what we saw was a clear pattern of people that were connected to the people that were working at ZINARA that were benefiting from these monies. If you read the forensic report and you see the people that benefited from the contracts, if you then go to the roads that they purport to have done, it leaves a lot to be desired. One company would go to Harare VID and put their graders and then they are given monies to erect the hill start facility. Before they even finish that job they would be awarded another contract to do another job at Victoria Falls VID using the Harare experience and yet there was no work done. They were just getting money for nothing.

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