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“Actual spending today is $24 million against the $144 million that is required,” he said.
Zimbabwe has generally had one of the best basic infrastructure coverage in the region, however, as a result of the inadequate maintenance spending, the country now lags in terms of service coverage and quality.

The limited spending has largely been attributed to a constrained fiscus due to the liquidity challenges, however analysts believe that ideally the private sector should be by far the largest           source of financing for new capital expenditures.
This calls for strengthening of the policy and legal framework for private investment, technical and financial restructuring of State enterprises, and strengthening of the legal, regulatory and administrative environment for the provision of infrastructure services.

Said Mr Kitabire: “Improving the operating environment for infrastructure services is essential for the mobilisation of private sector investment. As the Finance Minister (Tendai Biti) has said, private investors need clarity in the regulatory/policy framework.”
There is also the question of whether the country has the capacity to carry out the required infrastructure maintenance and upgrade even if the money becomes available.

Last year the AfDB released a report that undertook a detailed examination of the country’s development of basic infrastructure for the transport, power, water and sanitation, and information and communications technology sectors in the past decade, as well as the management of the services associated with this infrastructure.
The report  Infrastructure and Growth in Zimbabwe 2011 — shows that most infrastructure falling under the jurisdiction of parastatals has deteriorated due to the structural inefficiencies of the respective State entities.

“In other sectors such as power, rail transport, and fixed line communications, where services are provided by parastatals, prices have been kept low, and as a result, the economic costs of the deterioration have emerged in the form of large and, in some cases, unsustainable operating losses for these parastatals
“The deterioration in the physical infrastructure has been accompanied by lack of progress in building institutional capacities for management and regulation of the basic services associated with these networks.

“Problems in this area stem from a disjoined approach to regulation and oversight among the ministries responsible for these sectors, compounded by a substantial loss of skills in the public workforce,” reads part of the report.
The poor performance of the country’s parastatals has therefore constrained infrastructure refurbishment and upgrades directly, which calls for expediting of the parastatals and State enterprises restructuring programme.

Zimbabwe has about 78 parastatals and State enterprises, 15 of which have been allotted for privatisation, 18 for commercialisation, 34 for restructuring and 11 are still under consideration.

Related to the Infrastructure and Growth in Zimbabwe 2011 report, the AfDB has also structured an Infrastructure Action Plan 2011-2020, which calls for increased spending on routine maintenance to the tune of $700 million a year.
This sharply contrasts with the current allocations for maintenance.

Mr Kitabire contends that speedy implementation of the recently launched debt strategy — the Zimbabwe Accelerated Clearance Debt and Development Strategy — will help the country to access funding from external sources.
“Arrears clearance is essential for the mobilisation of the $2,8 billion of donor support. A big shortfall in donor support will undermine Government effort to complete rehabilitation programmes,” he said.

The AfDB currently has a $70 million multidonor trust fund for the country (ZimFund) to which countries including Australia, Denmark, Germany, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom have pledged support.
The multidonor trust fund is currently focusing on providing initial critical investments for the country’s power and water sectors.