Zinara to parcel out 40 earth-moving machines
Sunday, 15 July 2012 00:09
Cardnus Chijongwe
The Zimbabwe National Road Administration (Zinara) intends to parcel out over 40 earth-moving machines worth more than US$10 million to local authorities across the country.
A tender for the purchase of the road construction and maintenance equipment is expected to be presented to the State Procurement Board this week. Zinara spokesperson Mr Augustine Moyo said the move is aimed at cutting costs incurred by councils when hiring road maintenance machinery.
“We are in the process of purchasing 40 earth-moving machines as a cost-cutting measure. We have realised that councils are losing thousands of dollars through hiring out equipment at exorbitant charges. Authorities such as the Department of Roads, District Development Fund, urban councils and rural district councils, which are our partners in road development, will be the major beneficiaries of the programme. The purchase of this equipment will also go a long way in helping us maintain roads as the machines we have been using have outlived their life span.”
Turning to Zinara’s relationship with local councils, Mr Moyo said the roads authority regards councils as partners. “We are in good books with all councils, including Harare. In the case of Harare, we have a win-win partnership, with the city recently getting scanners from the Ministry of Transport for use in detecting fake or expired licence discs.”
The clampdown on unregistered vehicles last week saw the arrest of more than 317 motorists.
Labels: ZINARA
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Zinara collects US$57m in toll fees
Saturday, 19 May 2012 00:00
Peter Matambanadzo Senior Reporter
A total of US$57 million in toll fees has been collected since the toll system was started three years ago. In a statement yesterday on the collection and utilisation of toll fees, Secretary for Transport, Communications and Infrastructural Development Mr Partson Mbiriri said US$57 million was collected from August 18, 2009 to April 2012.
“Since we started collecting on August 18, 2009 to April 10, 2012 the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority has collected US$56 552 513,39 and remitted a total of sum of US$47 026 318,83 from toll fees to Zinara after retaining 10 percent for administration purposes and US$49 000 for security each month,” the statement reads.
During the same period, Zinara in turn disbursed US$34 million to the Department of Roads for regional, primary and part of the secondary road network maintenance.
The Ministry of Transport, Communications and Infrastructural Development said US$16,3 million went towards routine road maintenance, US$10,2 million to road dualisation and road
rehabilitation of the Harare-Masvingo Road, Harare-Gweru Road to Norton and Asphalt overlay from Tynwald and the round about near Snake Park.
At least US$2,9 million was used for construction and improvements of temporary tollgate shelters, construction of detours, road widening sites, traffic counts and purchase of office equipment, while US$1,6 million for purchase of 48 pick up trucks and 14 medium size lorries and vehicle maintenance and other activities.
The Harare Airport Road expenditure was US$2 million and a further US$164 447 was used for borehole drilling, fuel procurement and domestic travel expenses.
The Ministry said US$7,8 million was used for the repayment of a loan to the Ministry of Finance through the Infrastructural Development Bank of Zimbabwe.
The money had been borrowed to fund the road dualisation of Harare-Masvingo and Harare Gweru roads. Zinara recently came under fire for blowing over three times what the law allows it to spend on itself in 2010.
The Office of the Comptroller and Auditor-General in a draft audit report for 2010 noted that Zinara was allowed, under the Roads Act, to spend only 2,5 percent of the money it collected for the roads fund on administration, but it spent eight percent.
The Auditor-General said the amount could have been spent on roads.
The law expects Zinara to spend at least 97,5 percent of what it collects in tolls, vehicle licence fees, fuel levies, overload fees and transit coupon fees on maintaining and extending Zimbabwe’s road system.
While the Auditor-General made no allegations of a criminal nature it was concerned that this overspending was done without the written authority of the parent ministry, that of Transport, Communications and Infrastructure Development.
Zinara collects money for Government’s roads pool and distributes it to councils and the District Development Fund for road maintenance.
Labels: INFRASTRUCTURE, TOLL ROADS, ZINARA
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Councils wait for bitumen to start repairing roads
LOCAL authorities in Zimbabwe are anxiously awaiting distribution of bitumen recently acquired by Government to start repairing roads that have been damaged heavily by the heavy rains, an official said yesterday.
Zimbabwe Local Government Authority President Mr Fani Phiri said the local authorities expected the bitumen to be distributed without further delay to enable them to commence road maintenance.
Transport and Communications Deputy Minister Mr Hubert Nyanhongo last week said the Zimbabwe National Road Authority had acquired large amounts of bitumen to distribute to road authorities, including the Department of Roads.
Mr Nyanhongo said the bitumen was sufficient to cover all provinces and that work had already started on some major highways.
Mr Phiri said local authorities expected ZINARA to consult them when they distribute the bitumen to ensure fairness.
He said councils expected ZINARA to use the method it had always used when allocating them funds from fuel.
Local authorities were allocated funds basing on the number of kilometres of road under their jurisdiction.
Government established ZINARA to administer the five-percent levy paid by motorists for every litre of fuel they purchased at service stations.
ZINARA had not been earning much from the levy in recent years, as the country had not been importing large quantities of fuel due to shortages of foreign currency. — New Ziana.
Labels: BITUMEN, COUNCILS, ROADS, ZIMBABWE, ZINARA
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