adminHarare Bureau
FRANK Chitukutuku, the Zimbabwe National Roads Administration chief executive officer has resigned, cutting short his contract which runs until 2015. His resignation comes after Transport Minister Obert Mpofu voiced concern at how accountability was lacking at Zinara, especially on funds collected at tollgates.
A source said Chitukutuku tendered his resignation last December, giving various reasons for his decision.
The source would not disclose all the reasons for his departure, but said one of them was that he wanted to “pursue personal business”.
“He gave notification that he will leave on December 31, 2014,” said the source. “He will go on leave on October 31 pending departure on December 31. His contract is supposed to expire on March 31, 2015. His reasons for departure are contained in his resignation letter.”
Munesu Munodawafa, the Secretary for Transport and Infrastructure Development, said yesterday that he would only comment after meeting Minister Mpofu today.
Mpofu was said to be out of the country, while Chitukutuku said he needed clearance from Munodawafa before he could speak.
Minister Mpofu recently placed Zinara under daily surveillance to monitor revenue collection to improve transparency.
The move came after he dissolved the Zinara board chaired by Abdullah Kassim, as well as the boards of Air Zimbabwe, the Traffic Safety Council of Zimbabwe, the Meteorological Services Department, Road Motor Services, CMED, the Vehicles Inspection Department, the Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe and National Handling Services.
Minister Mpofu directed that Zinara operations be directly linked to the ministry for better monitoring.
He said Zinara officials were “not accountable to anybody, they were not reporting to the ministry or the permanent secretary, so we were giving them guidelines on how they should operate”.
The public, legislators and local authorities have been complaining that Zinara was not properly disbursing funds for road maintenance despite collecting millions annually.
Chitukutuku joined Zinara in 2005 as an auditor and was promoted to the position of human resources manager in 2006. He was appointed chief executive officer in 2009.
Chitukutuku is understood to have invested heavily in farming and he could be heading towards full-time private enterprise.
derick.khumalo