Zinara takes bold stance against corruption

The Zimbabwe National Road Administration has upped efforts to fight corruption and plug off revenue leakages as it seeks to align its operations with President Mnangagwa’s Vision 2030 and Government’s stance against all forms of graft.

In line with this, the road fund administrator, has introduced a dedicated risk and loss control department that is a first of its kind since the formation of the organisation.

This comes at the backdrop of several legacy issues where the institution was involved in projects that overlapped its mandate as enshrined in the Road Act, including undertaking road construction projects.

ZINARA public relations and marketing manager, Mr Tendai Mugabe, confirmed to Herald Business and Finance on Friday that the institution had introduced the risk and loss control department primarily to do internal investigations and flagging suspicious transactions.

“Yes, I can confirm that we now have a risk and loss control unit in the organisation,” said Mr Mugabe. “This is a critical unit as we chart a new trajectory that is in line with Vision 2030 and Government’s policy against corruption. As an organisation, we have taken a new turn where accountability and transparency are our key operating principles. This new unit will ensure that everyone is accountable to their actions and it will also improve our operational efficiency.

“The ultimate objective is to increase revenue collections that will in turn allows us to increase disbursements to road authorities.”

Among other things, Mr Mugabe said, the new risk and loss control unit would provide sound risk and loss control advice to the board, executive and management on strategic decision making and business planning objectives.

Mr Mugabe said this would help the executive and management to fully understand the implications of their decisions and possible mitigating actions.

“We are encouraging the use of modern technology in our operations and this new unit will enhance the use of technology and data analytics to leverage large quantities of data to detect suspicious transactions and patterns of fraud and system abuse,” said Mr Mugabe.

“It will also conduct internal investigations independently and objectively into allegations of all types of fraud and irregular business and employee conduct through a systematic and disciplined approach to investigation and asset recovery work without undue influence.”

Mr Mugabe said ZINARA had transformed and was now operating in line with its constitutional mandate.

He said various innovations were being finalised to bring convenience to the motoring public.

“I don’t want to pre-empt what we are doing but what I can say is that soon, we are going to launch various products that reduce queues at the tollgates and vehicle licensing sites. Reports of queues at some of our tollgates is one thing that is worrying us and very soon we will address that challenge,” said Mr Mugabe. –herald.co.zw