Parliament commends Zinara

Farirai Machivenyika-Senior Reporter

The PAC said this in its report tabled before Parliament last week following its inquiry into the parastatal’s operations.

Zinara is under new management and the board is chaired by Dr George Manyaya.

The forensic report showed that there was rampant abuse of funds running into millions of dollars under the previous management led by Mr Frank Chitukutuku, with the parastatal operating without laid down procedures and general lack of sound corporate governance tenets.

“The PAC in the ninth Parliament tabled a report on audit observations and recommendations from ZINARA’s financial statements in the 2019 and 2020 Auditor General’s reports as well as the forensic audit report which examined ZINARA’s affairs and transactions,” reads part of the report tabled in Parliament.

“The Committee, generally noted tremendous progress made by ZINARA and shaking off of the bad boy image by implementing most of the recommendations made by the PAC in the ninth Parliament.”

When he appeared before the Committee in September, Dr Manyaya said ZINARA had implemented approximately 90 percent of the recommendations, with some issues of a criminal nature having being referred to the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission.

He said ZINARA had developed operating policies and manuals for human resources management, procurement, finance and risk control among others.

In addition, travel and subsistence allowances for board members being paid outside the terms of reference and approved regulations had been scrapped.

“We stand guided by the vision of President Mnangagwa and guidance of our Minister (Transport and Infrastructural Development), Felix Mhona in executing our mandate as expected by the generality of Zimbabweans,” Dr Manyaya said.

Meanwhile, the PAC also recommended that outstanding reimbursements that should be made by former board members must be recovered by December 31.