Zinara, Central Vehicle Registry integration starts

THE Government's integration of systems under the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development to enhance enforcement of laws and reduce revenue leakages, has started with the Central Vehicle Registry (CVR) already connected to about 350 sites being run by the Zimbabwe National Roads Administration (Zinara).

The new system will enable the Vehicle Theft Squad to immediately track stolen vehicles before they cross borders, Zimra to flush out counterfeit Customs Clearance Certificates (CCCs), the Vehicle Inspection Department (VID) to do on the spot vehicle inspection and flush out unroadworthy public service vehicles while the Road Motor Transportation (RMT) and the road administration will synchronise passenger vehicle licensing.

Zinara and CVR are already linked up and it is believed that when all the departments are connected, the country will generate more revenue from tollgates, while illegal importation of vehicles will be curtailed.

Appearing before the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Transport and Infrastructural Development in Harare yesterday, officials from Univern Enterprises that has partnered Zinara in the computerisation exercise, said the system sought to interconnect agencies under the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development with Home Affairs and Local Government ministries as well as Zimra. Agencies under the Transport Ministry include the CVR, VID, RMT and Zinara.

Zinara officials headed by board chairperson, Mr Albert Mugabe and acting chief executive officer, Engineer Moses Juma, also appeared before the same committee chaired by Zanu-PF MP for Chegutu West, Dexter Nduna.

Said Univern director, Mr Laurence Sher: "There was a delay in information getting to CVR on change of ownership and registrations, which has been dealt with via a unified system which is a link between CVR and Zinara."

"With Zinara's facilitation of their registering offices, which is around 350 live sites around the country, combining that into CVR has now made CVR live at 350 sites, which actually went live yesterday (Monday)."

He said the system was highly secured to the extent that only CVR had access to the vehicle ownership database while Zinara would not access that information despite being linked. Mr Sher said Zimra was also in the process of being linked up to the integrated system, which would see them registering vehicles on the system compared to a situation where they relied on customs clearance certificates that could be tempered with.

He said only Zimra would also have access to that database.

"On the Vehicle Theft Squad, there has been an approval to connect them live to the database. It's not proper for the Vehicle Theft Squad to have a delayed system. If a vehicle is reported stolen, it should be live at every single Vehicle Theft Squad. That is now being connected live to the database.

"Most importantly, they will be able to flag that vehicle as stolen immediately including to the tollgates that are live in the system so that if the vehicle gets to the tollgate, it won't proceed and if it gets to the border post, it won't be able to get through the border," said Mr Sher.

He said the VID and the RMT also needed to be connected to the integrated system, a development that would enable Zinara not to license Public Service Vehicles that have not been cleared. Mr Sher said this would reduce incidences of officials doing underhand dealings in clearing public service vehicles that were unroadworthy.

Engineer Juma said following the computerisation of third party insurance that was done by Univern from May this year, revenue inflows surged resulting in increased remittances to the Traffic Safety Council of Zimbabwe that got about $1 million in about two months compared to the $2 million that it used to receive per year.

To that end, Mr Mugabe said they were prepared to be part of the unified system. He said the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation also experienced increased revenues from vehicle radio licences after it was put on the Zinara system.

"We are ready to be unified with other arms such as VID and the police. We have the tools to collect revenue and we are ready. We can also help in the collection of presumptive tax. We cannot collect on their behalf. We are not saying we want the money to belong to Zinara," said Mr Mugabe.

He said Zinara was also ready to introduce the pre-paid tolling card. Eng Juma said Zinara collected about $180 million from toll fees since they were introduced in 2009. He said the tollgates were run by two companies-Intertoll (Plumtree-Harare-Mutare) manning nine tollgates and Univern Enterprises which runs the rest of the system with 17 tollgates.

"Currently, on the 17 tollgates, we are paying Univern in terms of commission 12,5 percent excluding VAT. Then on Intertoll, it's a cost plus model, which means the cost of collection then they add 21 percent mark-up," said Eng Juma.

But Nduna queried the commission to Intertoll saying it was very high compared to Univern that was paid 12, 5 percent while Zimra, which used to collect, was paid 10 percent. He implored Zinara to revisit the deal by giving it back to Zimra or Univern. Mr Mugabe said Transport and Infrastructural Development Minister, Dr Joram Gumbo, had also summoned them over the issue.

He said they were engaging Intertoll with the intention of reviewing the commission downwards.