adminBusiness yesterday that a full-scale investigation into the tenders would be launched soon.
Mr Moyo distanced Zinara from recent advertisements placed by rural district councils in newspapers, inviting tenders for the maintenance and rehabilitation of roads.
“We have absolutely nothing to do with those individuals and institutions that are flighting those advertisements,” he said.
“They are talking about stretches of road of between 55km and 75km that cost millions of dollars and if they think that Zinara will fund this, they are being misled. We do not have that kind of money at the moment, and besides this is not how we conduct business here.”
Under the Road Fund, Zinara works closely with councils in both rural and urban areas to fund the maintenance and rehabilitation of the road network.
The resources are drawn from toll fees, vehicle licence fees, fuel levies, axle overload fees and transit coupon fees.
Mr Moyo said he found it odd that Chirumhanzu Nyaminyami and Sanyati rural district councils had invited tenders without consulting Zinara.
Nyaminyami Rural District Council invited tenders for civil works (road rehabilitation) for a 55km stretch while Sanyati invited tenders for 58km road rehabilitation.
Chirumhanzu Rural District Council chief executive a Mr Chatikobo said they had already completed the tender process for the maintenance of a 75km road network.
But he refused to disclose the source of funding for the project. Calls to Sanyati and Nyaminyami rural district councils went unanswered.
Mr Moyo said Zinara worked with a pool of funds, distributed to the councils on a rotational basis. The councils are expected to account for how they used the funds.
He said this was an internally driven process and did not expect outsiders to know where the funds would be disbursed and how much was available.
Sources privy to the goings-on at Zinara said what made the recent tender invitations suspicious was that a certain engineering consulting firm was involved in all the
tenders advertised by the three rural district councils.
Contacted for comment, one of the engineers said the company was engaged as a consultant to help the councils in the tendering and adjudication processes.
He said the company was working on “several projects around the country”.
Online Reporter