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Obert Siamilandu in Kariba
Karoi residents are up in arms against their local authority which they are accusing of gross incompetence after Auditor-General Mrs Mildred Chiri raised a red flag on the town council’s operations.
According to the Auditor-General’s Report for 2018, Karoi Town Council had governance issues where it failed to finalise drafting policies and ensuring discussion is made, agreed and adopted as per local authority statutory requirements.
The report also noted problems with stand sales where the council was not maintaining a comprehensive record of stands sold and debtors.
The record availed to the Auditor-General, according to the report, did not have detailed information such as the total value of stands sold, date of sale and the total number of issued stands.
Karoi Residents Trust chairman Mr Trevor Chiwanga accused council management of gross incompetence and negligence.
“Failure by management to fulfil their key result areas is gross negligence and incompetence,” he said.
“It shows lack of respect to the residents who are not getting the required services.
“We are challenging management to put in place an action plan and account to their actions. Otherwise, the Minister responsible should take action and fire incompetent managers after every audit report.”
Council chairman Cde Abel Matsika acknowledged the results, saying they were ready to work on all grey areas as recommended by the Auditor-General.
“We accept the audited results as they are meant to improve the way we run our council and we are taking the recommendations seriously,” he said.
Meanwhile, the same audit report also noted that the Kariba Municipality had lost close to $5,3 million after failing to meet some of its statutory obligations.
Financial Services director Mr Saratiyere Chitenhe blamed poor financial inflows for the challenges faced.
“The issues raised by the Auditor General are very true as acknowledged in our management responses in the received management letter.
Our collection efficiency averaged to 55 percent during the year under review,” he said.
Mr Chitenhe urged residents and ratepayers to pay up so that council meets its obligations including statutory creditors and salary arrears for staff.
“As long as people do not pay council will not be able to improve service delivery. The same issue of collection efficiency also affects provision of streetlights.
“It is our hope that residents will realise that without money council is crippled,” he said.
Online Reporter