Gumbo appoints new Zinara board

Freeman Razemba : Senior Reporter

Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister Dr Joram Gumbo has appointed a new Zimbabwe National Roads Authority (zinara) board that will be headed by Mr Albert Mugabe. Mr Wilfred Ramwi deputises Mr Mugabe. Other members of the board are; Dr Mercy Manyuchi, Mr Aaron G. Tapfuma, Mrs Lucy E. Furamera, Dr Judith Kateera and Engineer Goodwell Mapako.Others are Engineer Martha Ndoro, Mayor Sifiso Mpofu, Mr Aaron Mazingiso, Chief Khulumani Mathema and Mrs Patricia S. Bwerinofa.

Mr Mugabe has been leading the board on acting basis.

Addressing the board members in Harare, Dr Gumbo said their appointments were based on nominations submitted by the various sectors they represented in terms of Section 8 of the Roads Act Chapter 13:18.

“Therefore I am confident that you shall discharge your duties diligently, professionally and ethically.

“Let me hasten to point out that zinara is an institution that is mandated specifically to raise and collect revenues for the development of our road infrastructure by the various Road Authorities. It is therefore imperative that as a board your priorities should focus on resourcing road authorities so that they are able to discharge their duties as expected in the Zim-Asset blueprint,” he said.

He said from the time he joined the ministry, he had noted that while zinara’s revenue collections had increased substantially, the disbursements to Road Authorities had not matched the increase in revenue collections and had been below national needs and expectations.

The minister said the board should ensure that the trend was reversed this financial year.

“Let me emphasise that funding of corporate social responsibility activities should not take precedence over the core mandate of zinara.

“I expect the board and management to continue to improve on the adherence to the corporate governance principles, be it in adjudication of tenders, procurement of goods and services, recruitment and deployment of human resources, the calling of board meetings and board committee meetings as well as reporting to the ministry and other Government institutions,” Dr Gumbo said.

“Please note that this is not an executive board, therefore I do not expect the board to be involved in the day-to-day operations of the organisation unless the ministry and the board have agreed on specific matters that may be critical for the smooth operations of the organisations,” he added.

Dr Gumbo said he wanted the board to complete a number of outstanding legal matters, which he had requested to be dealt with.

These include filling the vacant post of zinara chief executive officer, ensuring the clearance of long standing debts with various service providers and to review and amend the zinara-Univern contracts.

The minister said in his view, the contract was skewed in favour of Univern.

Dr Gumbo said they should also deal with the zinara-Infralink contract on which concerns had been raised by the ministry, the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development and Zimbabwe Revenue Authority.

He said the other one was the zinara-InterToll agreement in which zinara had very limited control on accounting for revenues collected with maintenance work being executed by private contractors at the expense of the Department of Roads which is the road authority in charge of national highways.

Dr Gumbo said he expected to receive quarterly reports from the board on resolving these issues.

In July 2014, the then Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister Dr Obert Mpofu appointed a zinara board that was headed by Mr Mugabe in an acting capacity.

The other board members were Victoria Falls mayor Mr Mpofu, Coach and Bus Operators Association representative Mr Farium Alex Kautsiro, Mr Jeffrey Nkomo, Mr David Norupiri, Engineer Norman Muzvidzwa, Mr Peter Hlohla, Engineer Martha Ndoro, Mrs Natsai Jaiwa and Chief Khulumani Mathema.

The board replaced the one that was led by Mr Abdullah Kassim that was dissolved in February 2014, with Dr Mpofu saying then that the dissolution was pursuant to the objectives and goals of Zim-Asset, whose implementation was underpinned and guided by a results-based management system.