'ZINARA Finance Director Had Only A Certificate In Bible Study'
The Public Accounts Committee of the Parliament of Zimbabwe on Thursday produced a report on the audit of the Zimbabwe National Road Administration (ZINARA), exposing massive corruption and nepotism at the organisation.
The maladministration at the State-owned company was revealed during the presentation in Parliament of the First Report of the Public Accounts Committee on the analysis of ZINARA’s audited Accounts for the year 2017 and 2018 and the Forensic Audit Report.
Newly-appointed Public Accounts Committee chairperson Brian Dube (Gweru Urban) said ZINARA did not have a Human Resources (HR) policy at the time of the Committee’s oral interview in 2019 even though it was established in 2002.
Among other things, a hair allowance was paid for every lady employee for a hairdo at She and He, Red Rose, and Ladies Hairdo saloons for a total amount of US$24 500.
The former ZINARA CEO Frank Chitukutuku, without proof of an interview, became the Chief Executive Officer of the organisation at a time when he was still in Part B of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries studies.
Christmas hampers worth US$55 700 were bought from OK MART on the 11th of December 2018 from a CBZ Account.
Each Board member received hampers valued at US$9 600. The Christmas hampers were accounted for in the records of ZINARA as expenditure for ‘office supplies’.
Debating on the report, opposition MDC Alliance MP Paurina Mpariwa said:
If you then look at the qualifications of the people that were managing ZINARA, none of them including the managing director had a proper qualification, not a degree or diploma.
In fact, the Finance Director had only one qualification. The qualification was a Bible Certificate from Ezekiel Guti’s College, nothing else.
This was the person that was supposed to be the Finance Director to oversee millions, not only of RTGS but millions of US$.
The end result was the looting of public funds in an unbelievable manner. This is the reason why I fully support that ZACC should actually get in and let justice prevail.
Norton MP, Temba Mliswa (Independent), blamed white-owned cartels like Univern Enterprise for the bad state of roads currently.
Mliswa said Univern had captured some key members of Parliament portfolios and they were no longer able to carry out their oversight roles.