Albert Mugabe led ZINARA board squandered funds on unsanctioned allowances

 Members of the ousted Albert Mugabe led  Zimbabwe Road Administration (ZINARA) board are under fire for receiving unsanctioned allowances at workshops and other non board/committee meetings, Zim  Morning Post has learnt.

The Auditor  General Mildred Chiri has dug  her fangs into the board on basis that they enjoyed benefits without approval from the parent ministry.

This was noted in her report on ZINARA’s financial statements for the year ended December 31 2017.

 Wrote Chiri:

“There was no evidence of approval from the parent ministry (Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure Development) for the representation allowances that were being paid to the board members whenever they attended workshops and other non board/committee meetings.” 

“The risks and or implications thereof were financial losses due to payment of unapproved board expenses. The board should ensure that payments made are for board fees and in respect of representation allowances, these should be approved by the ministry,” she added.

The report also noted how the parastatal was losing out on revenue  especially on the Lutumba tollgate as there were motorists evading the barricades that were put in place.

This publication has however been following  closely goings ons at ZINARA after a series of investigations exposing the rot in the parastatal  based on a  forensic audit conducted  by Grant Thornton.

The report  revealed massive abuse of funds by the road administrator from 2011 to march 2016.

The Zim Morning post revealed how Zinara collected USD$589,2 million and only disbursed a paltry USD$160 million (27,3%) gobbling close to USD$428,4 million (72,7%) as well as how the road administrator tried to muzzle the media from exposing its rot.