By Tendai Mugabe
Government has ordered a forensic audit on the operations of the Zimbabwe National Road Administration amid growing speculation that the road fund is being abused.
Transport and Infrastructure Development Minister Joram Gumbo confirmed ordering the audit yesterday. This comes amid speculation that the road fund could have lost thousands of dollars to senior executives who occupied dual positions and reportedly withdrew mega benefits from the parastatal under unclear circumstances since 2014.
Minister Gumbo told The Herald that the audit seeks to have a holistic understanding on the operations of Zinara with a view to come up with a viable way forward. Said Minister Gumbo: “As a new Minister, I want to understand the operations (at Zinara).
The audit is being done by the Comptroller Auditor General. I am new so I want to understand the organisation including staff, operations and everything else. So I have asked for a forensic audit there.”
It is understood that the audit is being carried out by an international audit firm Grant Thornton at the instruction of the Auditor General.
Sources at Zinara said the situation at the road fund was strange as the acting chief executive officer Engineer Moses Juma and administration and human resources director Mr Precious Murove have been occupying dual positions since 2014.
Eng Juma is doubling as the parastatal’s technical director engineering since March 2014 when he replaced Mr Frank Chitukutuku while Mr Murove has been acting as the finance director until last month when a substantive candidate was appointed for that portfolio.
Sources close to the matter intimated that the two posts come with rewarding perks and the two senior directors were creaming off lucrative benefits from the arrangement. “Imagine that there are several posts that are still vacant in the organisation for a long time and no one has been appointed to act in those positions and you wonder what is so special about these two posts,” said the source.
“It is because these are senior executive positions that come with attractive benefits.” The source said among other posts, those that were vacant included operations manager (southern region), chief technician (northern region), operations systems manager and operations officer (Mutare).
The source said the salaries and perks of these top management positions fall in the category of what is known as executive pay roll that comprised the chief executive officer, director administration and human resources, director finance and company secretary.
The chief executive is understood to be pocketing a salary in the range of US$7 000 with other perks like fuel, entertainment, cellphone and fuel allowances. He is also entitled to school fees for his children at private schools on top of holiday allowances which are subject to board approval.
The post of director technical engineering that Eng Juma has been occupying also come up with a handsome package which include an approximate salary of $5000 among other benefits. It is believed that Mr Murove also enjoyed almost similar benefits for a period spanning over a year.
Eng Juma on Monday confirmed the dual roles but said he had since assigned Engineer Givemore Kufa to act as director technical engineering.
Eng Kufa is the Zinara engineer for the northern region. Before his appointment as the technical director engineering, Eng Juma was Zinara’s engineer for southern region a post which is still vacant at the parastatal since 2013.
“I was promoted from being regional engineer to director technical engineering in March 2013,” he said. “In 2014 I was asked to act as chief executive but my substantive appointment is director technical engineering. “For the purpose of managing my office I have since appointed someone to act as director technical engineering.”
Commenting on Mr Murove’s dual roles that ended last month Eng Juma said:
“He was also appointed as director administration in March 2013 but following the departure of Mr Thomas Mutizhe he was asked to act in that capacity as well. “Mr Mutizhe left unceremoniously and we asked him to cover that post in an interim capacity. The post was advertised and is now substantively filled.” The Herald
