Chronicle Editor
Midlands Bureau
GWERU City Council (GCC) has attached movable property of 483 defaulting residents and companies leading to the recovery of about $18 million.
The local authority is seeking to recover $3,7 billion owed by residents and other ratepayers to improve service delivery.
The council said it is using an accounting debtors aged analysis system, starting from those who owe the local authority more, spiraling down to the lowest.
In an interview yesterday, the local authority public relations officer Ms Vimbai Chingwaramusee confirmed the attachment of residents and companies’ property.
She said so far 483 residents and businesses had their properties attached through the Messenger of Court.
“Warrants issued were for 483 cases involving residents and with a value of over $25 million. Payments made amounted to over $18 million,” said Ms Chingwaramusee.
However, Ms Chingwaramusee said the recovered money is insignificant considering the local authority is aiming at recovering more than $3 billion it is owed by defaulting residents and companies.
“Council is owed about $3,7 billion by residents and other ratepayers and we want to recover that money to improve service delivery,” she said.
Ms Chingwaramusee said there is a process that is followed by the local authority which involves the Messenger of Court before any property is attached.
She said attachment of property is the last resort aimed at compelling defaulters to make payment plans or honour their debts.
“There are letters of demand first and if that is not responded to, we do summons. If the debtors ignore, they are then handed over for warrants of attachments through the Messenger of Court. We do not target or do seizures but from our standard operating procedures as required by law we pick from our accounting debtors’ aged analysis starting with big debtors cascading down area by area and we issue our final demands followed by summons and attachment of property,” said Ms Chingwaramusee.
derick.khumalo
Online Reporter