Staff Reporter
The Zimbabwe National Road Administration (ZINARA) announced the implementation of a new accounting policy system and other systems (e.g procurement system) aimed at ensuring accountability and transparency.
Addressing the Parliamentary Portifolio Committee on Public Accounts, ZINARA board Chairman, Dr George Manyaya said they were rebranding by putting in place ethos on accountability and transparency through an accounting policy system.
“I would like to say Honourable Chairman that ZINARA in now on a rebranding, transformational drive, whereby the new ZINARA is now working on the ethos of accountability and transparency. We know that the funds that we collect belong to the people of Zimbabwe and it is our duty to collect and disburse with probity and propriety.
“We have put in place, an accounting policy system and manuals. We now have recruitment policies and manuals and all our employees are qualified experts of the roles they are supposed to be getting,” said Dr Manyaya.
The Dr Manyara-led board and management appointed in 2019, recently dismissed employees found guilty of corrupt tendencies.
Manyaya also highlighted the institution of a fully fledged procurement management system with requisite policies and qualified personnel.
“To address the issues identified in the forensic audit, a comprehensive set of interventions was implemented, at the core of which was the establishment of a new Procurement Management Unit (PMU) structure, led by skilled and experienced personnel. This new team was tasked with ensuring that procurement decisions were made with the necessary expertise, resulting in more efficient and cost effective contracting practices,” Dr Manyaya said.
ZINARA managed to resolve 66 of the 71 issues cited in the Grant Thornton forensic report, with five of them being work in progress. The issues raised in the audit report were lack of sound procurement procedures, poor risk and loss control mechanisms and poor collection and management of funds running into millions of dollars.
