GOVERNMENT has failed to pay contractors under the Emergency Road Rehabilitation Programme (ERRP) for the past five months, slowing down the road rehabilitation initiatives.
Government launched ERRP in 2021 after President Emmerson
Mnangagwa declared the country’s roads a national disaster.
A follow-up Statutory Instrument (SI) 47 of 2021 was later
gazetted, empowering the Transport and Infrastructural Development ministry to
authorise the Zimbabwe National Road Administration (Zinara) to source funding
for road rehabilitation.
At a dinner held in Gweru on Friday, Transport deputy
minister Mike Madiro said: “I think it is important to understand the revenue
flow pattern of government. Every end of year there are shutdowns, so in the
first quarter there are dribs and drabs, but in the second quarter at least
things start to flow. That needs to be recognised given the pressures which are
on the government first.”
However, speaking on condition of anonymity, some of the
contracted firms expressed fears that they would receive their money when it
has already lost value to inflation.
“We find ourselves being paid late the money that we were
supposed to be paid in January. This has reduced the value of our salary by a
third,” a contractor said.
“It means if we were supposed to be paid US$150 000
equivalent, we are now being paid US$50 000. This money was supposed to be paid
five to six months ago.”
Finance minister Mthuli Ncube recently said government was
planning to pay contractors 50% of their receipts in United States dollars, and
the other half in local currency. In February, Zinara said it was setting aside
$17 billion for the ERRP programme this year. The roads authority disbursed $6
billion to local authorities in the first quarter of the year. Newsday
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