MUTARE– Transport minister Joe Biggie Matiza says government has set aside ZWL$3 billion for countrywide road rehabilitation programme under a strategic outsourcing arrangement with contractors to shield government from high leasing costs.
Matiza who toured rehabilitated bridges in Chimanimani early this week said government was targeting more revenue collections from the Zimbabwe National Road Administration (ZINARA).
He said authorities were buoyed by the proactive stance taken by ZINARA management, which recently fired 30 toll-gate cashiers for alleged involvement in corruption among other accusations, saying as more collections flow in, government can meet its targets.
“The government has set aside $3 billion dollars that will go towards roads rehabilitation in the country but we want to ensure that there will be more injections coming.
“We want to thank Zinara especially the income generating department, its now working proper and by the time we continue to plug more leakages in Zinara then we will be able come up with more injections.
“We want to thank Zinara for the effort they are putting in raising money and we want to make the issue of road rehabilitation a success and we have started well this year and we are happy with the progress that have been done here in Chimanimani,” he said.
On the workmanship in the rehabilitation works, Matiza said he was satisfied by the contractors’ capacity to meet targets, which he said was a cost-effective way for government to manage rehabilitation costs.
“l wanted to see if our bridges have been properly build and l am happy they are strong, our President Emmerson Mnangagwa had said that he wanted to see the bridges finished early.
“There are big companies working in Chimanimani, we want to build world class roads, the contractors have capacity working here.
“As a ministry, we are targeting to bring more contractors in our road rehabilitation endeavors because we realized that it is expensive to lease or hire equipment,” said Matiza.
“We are going to flight tenders all over the country, that is the empowerment our President is always talking about, we want everyone to benefit and the money will trickle to villages up there,” he added.
