Zimbabwe National Roads Administration (Zinara) tolling
manager Mr Ostern Chimedza has been fired for presiding over financial leakages
at tollgates running into millions of dollars.
His dismissal comes barely two months after Zinara fired 30
cashiers for fraud and theft at tollgates.
Last year, the Government restructured Zinara, resulting in
the dismissal and resignation of several senior managers.
Leaked correspondence seen by The Herald showed that Mr
Chimedza’s contract was terminated on January 15.
Zinara acting chief executive officer Engineer Moses
Chigonyati could not be reached for comment, while the institution’s chairman
Engineer Michael Madanha refused to discuss the matter.
“This letter serves to notify you that your contract as
tolling manager will be terminated on 15 January, 2020,” reads part of the
leaked correspondence.
Sources said Mr Chimedza was facing a slew of corruption
allegations bordering on bad corporate governance.
As tolling manager, he was reporting to former finance
director Mr Simon Taranhike, who was fired on charges of corruption.
A source said Mr Chimedza was furnished with several
reports of internal audits showing evidence of corruption at tollgates, but
failed to take corrective measures.
It is suspected that he could have been part of the looting
syndicate at tollgates, which included cashiers and their immediate
supervisors, as confirmed by one of the cashiers at the Skyline tollgate.
“In particular, he did not roll out and implement effective
tolling systems, leaving a porous system susceptible to theft and fraud by
tolling cashiers,” the source.
“Mr Chimedza failed to act on evidence from internal audit,
as well as the system provider which had pointed towards revenue leakages.
“In this regard, there were numerous recorded cases of
misconduct by tolling cashiers at Skyline, Shamva and Eskbank tollgates as
evidenced by variances between amounts recorded in the tolling system and the
amounts that were eventually banked.
“Furthermore, he failed to supervise his subordinates in
the maintenance of tolling booths, thereby falling short of expectations in
terms of his job description, which alluded to the need to maintain all toll
booths and plazas operationally functional in order to avoid disruption of
operations, leakages and congestion.
“Mr Chimedza also failed to take appropriate disciplinary
action against tolling cashiers who had excesses and shortfalls which were only
picked via internal audit spot checks.”
As part of cleansing the institution, Zinara fired 30
cashiers recently after unearthing systematic scams at four tollgates involving
cashiers, supervisors and police officers manning the gates.
The loot was shared with everyone involved, from the
supervising tollgate controllers down to the cleaners on an agreed hierarchy
scale.
Fourteen of the fired cashiers were based at Skyline
tollgate along the Harare-Masvingo Highway, while the other 16 were from Dema,
Shurugwi and Shamva tollgates.
The cashiers were given away by the sophisticated control
system supplied by Univern Enterprises that showed videos and registration
numbers of all vehicles that passed through the tollgates daily.
A mismatch between the punched registration numbers and
plates on actual vehicles that passed through the gate were noted by the
system, prompting Univern to compile reports for Zinara’s attention. Herald
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