MATABELELAND North Province Rural District Councils (RDCs) are making strides in rehabilitating roads through funding from Government.
This is contrary to what is obtaining in other areas where local authorities are failing to utilise funds provided by Government under the Emergency Roads Rehabilitation Programme 2 (ERRP2).
Last year Government allocated $30 billion for ERRP2 through the Zimbabwe National Road Administration (ZINARA).
This year Government released $93 billion for roads rehabilitation across the country
This week the National ERRP2 Technical Monitoring team toured areas under RDCs such as Tsholotsho and Binga to assess the progress of road works.
The delegation which will be in Hwange today is being led by Rural Infrastructure Development Agency (RIDA) Director General Mr Christopher Shumba and CEO of the Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (PRAZ) Mr Clever Ruswa, officials from the various RDCs, Department of Roads and RIDA and other senior Government officials.
The first stop was in Tsholotsho where it was revealed that the RDC was one of the local authorities that failed to utilise funds.
From the $25 million allocated last year, only $8 million was utilised.
Last year the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development directed local authorities to conduct due diligence on all tenders. This was because contractors were using black market forex exchange rates when billing Government for implementing projects resulting in exorbitant charges.
During a briefing on Tuesday, Tsholotsho RDC Engineer Tawanda Chimuka explained that after the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development’s due diligence directive, suppliers who were contracted started giving excuses and they did not know what to do thereafter.
He said this led to road rehabilitation works being suspended for the rest of the year.
The delegation toured two roads, Sihazela and the Mthofi-Nemane roads which were resurfaced.
The delegation travelled some 50km from Tsholotsho business centre to Mthofi-Nemane road. Here a grader had levelled the road.
In Binga the delegation toured the Binga-Siakobvu road where four kilometres out of 10km has been resurfaced. At the site there was heavy road machinery that was ready to start work on the road. The major challenge there was the rains that had halted progress.
Considering all the challenges and the progress, Mr Shumba said they were generally pleased at what has been done in Matabeleland North province.
“Generally there is marked improvement from what we saw last year. The RDCs are more focused and are striving to meet targets. We are happy with the progress,” said Mr Shumba.
He however said while he was happy that work has started in Tsholotsho, he expects more work to be done.
Mr Shumba said it was also pleasing to note progress on roads in Binga but again more could be done.
“Generally in Matabeleland North we have roads that have been re-gravelled, like in Lupane, Hwange and Binga. The Binga-Siakobvu road is also a milestone as steady progress is being made. Four kilometres out of 10km have been completed. The only challenge I hear is the weather conditions as it has been raining a lot in Binga and the remaining kilometres will be done once the rain s stop,” he said.
Mr Shumba said RIDA will be monitoring how fuel is used as it has discovered underhand dealings.
Mr Ruswa said due diligence directive from Treasury has brought sanity in the procurement industry.
“I know that the due diligence directive frustrated some suppliers especially those who were charging speculative prices. It is our hope that this sanity prevails so that there is no disruption to implementation of Government projects,” said Mr Ruswa. He said as PRAZ they were disappointed that contractors were doing a shoddy job and called on RDCs to report them to the authority. – The Chronicle
