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Tendai Mugabe, Harare Bureau

THE Zimbabwe National Roads Authority cannot account for what happened to $241 000 in “petty cash” issued to staff and the new management team has asked the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission to investigate and ascertain if there was any wrongdoing.

The “petty cash” was issued during the period when the Zimbabwean dollar was pegged at 1:1 to the US dollar meaning that at the current inter-bank exchange rate, the amount is the equivalent of almost $4 million.

A source at Zinara, who declined to be named, confirmed that a formal report was made to ZACC after suspicion was raised because of the large sums involved as “petty cash” and for which there are no explanations over what it was used for.

Zinara acting chief executive Mr Suston Muzenda could not be reached for a comment by time of writing.

ZACC spokesperson commissioner John Makamure could neither deny nor confirm that the matter was before them.

The Zinara official who spoke to our Harare Bureau said the money could have been converted to personal use but sanitised as “petty cash”. “We are failing to account for $241 000 that was issued as petty cash during the era of the now fired finance director Mr Simon Taranhike,” said the source.

“We have already made a formal report to ZACC and the matter is now before them. The matter was flagged by our audit teams who discovered that there were no proper acquittals that were made with reference to the so-called petty cash allowances. This was brought to the attention of Mr Taranhike then as finance director and other executive directors but it seems they were reluctant to address the issue.”

Another Zinara source added: “The cleansing that is going on has left a number of people uncomfortable. There are some hard questions that are being asked in terms of accountability that certain people are failing to answer. 

“Those people are now running to the media making false claims that they are being victimised. A lot of corrupt activities including abuse of the money meant for road development has been going on unabated for a long time. Leaks were also rampant at tollgates but that has been addressed. But some people who have been benefitting from those loopholes are not happy and want to play victim.”

The source said Zinara was going through a massive transformation that would ensure that it becomes a world class road fund that will build the highways and road system over the next decade to meet Vision 2030. 

“There is clear policy direction from the President Cde E.D Mnangagwa and right to our parent Minister Joel Biggie Matiza. All our efforts should be directed towards fulfilment of the President’s vision that we should have a world class road network by 2030.”