The Bulawayo City Council (BCC) is owed over ZWL$6 million in outstanding funds for road rehabilitation projects by the government, according to the latest council minutes.
This revelation comes amid growing concerns from residents urging the local authority to improve the state of the city’s roads, which have further deteriorated due to heavy rains.
BCC has frequently attributed delays in addressing road maintenance to insufficient funding from the government, particularly through the Zimbabwe National Road Administration (ZINARA).
Council minutes indicate that in 2024, BCC was allocated ZWL$18,568,731 under the Emergency Road Rehabilitation Programme 2 (ERRP2). However, only ZWL$11,916,058.85 was disbursed.
In response to questions from CITE, ZINARA explained that funds are disbursed in accordance with payment requests from local authorities, based on the progress of specific projects.
They noted that full disbursement requires all acquittal processes for specific projects to be completed.
“ZINARA disburses funds in line with payment requests from Road Authorities. In this case, BCC accessed 71% of its total allocation. The remaining 29% was not utilised as the Road Authority had yet to submit the required acquittals within the calendar year,” ZINARA stated.
“Additionally, BCC was allocated 50,000 litres of fuel, which was to be drawn at a rate of 15,000 litres until fully utilised. However, the Council failed to submit the first acquittal for the initial 15 000 litres and, as a result, could not access the remaining 35 000 litres.”
ZINARA noted that, as per their guiding legislation, unutilised funds are forfeited if not used within the specific year of allocation. In such cases, incomplete projects are carried over into the following year’s plans.
“ZINARA is guided by the Public Finance Management Act, which mandates that any budgetary allocation must be utilised within the financial year it is allocated. Failure to do so results in the forfeiture of the funds,” ZINARA explained.
“Nevertheless, we are confident that BCC has incorporated all incomplete projects into its 2025 Road Maintenance Plan. ZINARA will provide funding in alignment with the approved 2025 plan.”
ZINARA acknowledged the challenges posed by the currency used for disbursements. While disbursements are made in Zimbabwean dollars (ZWL), many service providers demand payment in United States dollars (USD).
“ZINARA, in line with government policy, operates a budget presented in ZWL. While we recognize the need for some payments to be made in USD, the majority of our collections are in ZWL, which is the currency we disburse,” ZINARA stated.
“To address this issue, we are disbursing USD fuel coupons to all Road Authorities to ensure road maintenance continues despite the currency challenges.”
