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Nyore Madzianike Manicaland Bureau
BUHERA Rural District Council has blamed the Zimbabwe National Roads Administration (Zinara) for failing to disburse funds allocated to it under the Emergency Road Rehabilitation Programme (ERRP), saying they only accessed 24 percent of the total amount.
Buhera RDC’s chief executive officer Ms Emily Chibvongodze said Zinara only deposited a portion of the money into their account.
Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister Joram Gumbo named Buhera RDC as one of the worst performing local authorities, after it only utilised $153 000 out of the $453 200 allocated to it under the ERRP.
Ms Chibvongodze said figures and reports given to the minister were not a true reflection of events on the ground, as Zinara failed to disburse all the funds into their account.
She said council had since compiled a report which was submitted to the District Administrator’s Office for onward submission to the minister.
“We prepared our programme that we gave to Zinara for the Emergency Road Rehabilitation Programme and it was approved,” said Ms Chibvongodze.
“In March 2017, they gave us $25 640 and they deposited another amount in August which totalled the figure to about $91 000 for the first phase.
“For the second phase, we had made some proposals and Zinara wrote back to us saying they allocated us $260 000 for the works, but they only deposited 24 percent of that amount which is $62 400.”
Ms Chibvongodze said after realising that the funds that were disbursed to council were not enough for the completion of road rehabilitation, they approached Zinara for more money.
She said Zinara said the money would not be deposited into council’s account, but they were supposed to write to the State Procurement Board to get waivers.
“Our application for a waiver was turned down on July 28, 2017 and we were advised to go through tender processes with the State Procurement Board,” said Ms Chibvongodze.
“We went through the tender processes and we then engaged a contractor, Talcourt Construction on October 17.
“The contractor started work and after two weeks the contractor abandoned work after widening strip road for three kilometres in Hwedza and a kilometre at Checheche, but Zinara had not paid a cent to the contractor.
“This is the amount which we are said to have failed to utilise as council. We were supposed to approach Zinara saying we have completed this stage and Zinara would then pay at every stage. That failed to happen.”
Ms Chibvongodze said it demotivated them to hear that they were under-performing when the fault lay with Zinara.
She blamed Zinara for failing to effectively communicate with local authorities in regards to road rehabilitation programmes and funding.
“In that report, they should have also indicated that we faced some challenges, of which some were caused by Zinara,” said Ms Chibvongodze.
“There are challenges in communication with Zinara. If you look at it, there were certain amounts we wanted, but we do not know how Zinara came up with a figure of 24 percent for us.
“There should be some consultations which should be done before they come up with a certain amount.”
Ms Chibvongodze said Buhera RDC had since rehabilitated about 200km of roads and they were expecting to commence with work next week after they had paid $11 800 to the contractor to resume work.
Zinara Manicaland provincial engineer, a Mrs Tambudzai, was said to be on leave when The Herald tried to contact her for comment.
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