By Walter Mswazie
The Zimbabwe National Roads Administration (Zinara) has blocked a resolution by Zaka Rural District Council to buy a $30 000 car using funds meant for road rehabilitation programmes.
The local authority recently held a full council meeting and resolved to use part of the $51 000 released by Zinara for road rehabilitation and maintenance to buy the vehicle.
When Zinara got wind of the resolution, it sent a team that held a meeting with the local authority and ordered the RDC to reverse its decision.
Zaka RDC Chairman Councillor Sebastian Musundire confirmed the development.
He said there was nothing wrong with the resolution as they had wanted to buy the vehicle for an engineer who supervises road works.
Clr Musundire said Zaka Central MP, Cde Paradzai Chakona is the one who approached Zinara over the matter.
“We had a meeting with Zinara following our resolution to purchase a vehicle worth $30 000 for the engineer to supervise work during road maintenance and rehabilitation.
“We resolved to deduct the money from the $51 000 released by Zinara for road rehabilitation. This is not a new phenomenon; most councils are doing the same,” said Clr Musundire.
He said the visit by Zinara officials could have been triggered by Cde Chakona following his complaint.
“We have been forced to rescind our resolution and the process will take six months meaning to say there won’t be any funding from Zinara within the same period.
“Zaka Central MP, Paradzai Chakona is the one who approached Zinara over the matter hence the meeting which stopped the purchase of the vehicle. He complained that there is no activity on a number of roads in his constituency,”he said Cde Chakona confirmed that he approached Zinara.
“It is true that I did approach Zinara after realising that a number of roads are in a bad state. I am aware that Zaka RDC received its allocation of $51 000 late last year but they had passed a resolution to use $30 000 from the same fund to buy a vehicle. It is always prudent for the local authority to use Zinara funds for their intended use and not to divert the money,” he said. The Chronicle
