admin
Vusumuzi Dube, Municipal Reporter
LAST Friday the Bulawayo City Council acting chairperson of the finance committee, Councillor Charles Moyo presented the city’s proposed budget for the 2018 municipal year.
The budget came after a process that saw the local authority going around the city’s 29 wards conducting what they termed “budget consultation exercise”.
Council also engages various groupings which include the business community, which is a prerequisite before the final budget is presented and handed over to the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing.
These consultation exercises were initially brought into the fray by then Minister of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing, Dr Ignatius Chombo who ordered that the consultations were now a prerequisite before any budget is approved by the ministry.
In justifying this move, Dr Chombo said; “Councils are put in place to manage service delivery within a city, service delivery which is paid for by the residents, therefore the residents must have a say in how their monies are utilised. Councils cannot just come and impose decisions like budgets on the residents; it is not workable at all.”
However, as councils engage in these budget consultations the question that screams for an answer is whether councils actually factor in residents’ inputs or just hold the consultation meetings just to fulfil a Government directive but go on to draft their own figures which they then forward to the Government.
Further, attendance at these budget consultations have generally been low thereby raising a red flag on the reliability of the input gathered as representative of the entire citizenry.
Permanent secretary in the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing, Engineer George Mlilo said it was imperative that residents took the budget consultations seriously as they had a large bearing towards the allocation of resources within their areas.
He noted that budget consultations ensured that residents navigate the route to be taken in terms of service delivery during the municipal year.
“When the ministry insisted on the budget consultation exercise the idea was to have residents have a say on how the local authority operates noting that they are the very people who pay for those services through rates and rentals.
“As a ministry we are strict that for any budget to be approved council should carry out these consultations, if there is proof that no consultations took place we won’t hesitate to reject the proposed budgets. Residents are also open to approach the ministry to highlight any complaints regarding the consultation exercise and if need be we conduct the necessary investigations,” said Eng Mlilo.
He said councils knew their mandate and the fact that the ministry had become tough on contracts issued to senior council staffers should serve as warning that the officials could not do as they wanted and instead note the importance of the budget consultations.
“We are the parent ministry and we put in place checks and balance to ensure that such directives are honoured. We are talking of residents’ monies, therefore it goes without question that the residents must have a say on how their monies are used,” he said.
Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association (BPRA) programmes co-ordinator, Mr Rodrick Fayayo said they had noted that not only had budget consultation meetings been rendered ineffective, they had largely turned into political meetings which did not serve the required mandate.
“Our belief is that in many instances council carries out these consultations in order to tick the boxes, not to listen to the views of residents. There has of course been an improvement in terms of putting an advert when there is still time thus you can get an advert even a week before the meetings. The only challenge is access to newspapers for residents hence only a few have access to the information.
“Secondly the use of councillors to mobilise residents for the meetings is not enough because it politicises and factionalises these meetings. Also the way the meetings are conducted gives the impression that residents are just supposed to rubber-stamp instead of real inputting. Our thinking is that multiple sources must be used to mobilise residents, for example the use of residents’ associations, churches, cultural groups operational at ward level as well as burial societies,” said Mr Fayayo.
The BPRA co-ordinator further noted that it would also improve the quality of the residents’ contributions if they could get the budget documents way before the consultation meetings.
Bulawayo United Residents Association (BURA) chairperson, Mr Winos Dube said while the consultative process was to some extent useful there was need for the local authority to take seriously what residents contributed in these meetings.
“As BURA we make sure that when we get notice of these meetings we inform our members in advance and encourage them to attend. Yes, I know that in some cases it’s only the same people who attend these meetings but these are the opinion leaders within these communities, they are fully aware of what is happening within their communities.
“However, I feel there is reluctance in the actual consideration of people’s views on the part of the local authority. I think they as professionals take some views and throw them out of the window feeling they don’t feed into what they consider as right.
“I will tell you of a situation that happened at their last consultative meeting that was held at the council chambers with the business community. There were some gentlemen who were representing the Indian community who raised a concern over the amount of vendors operating in front of their shops, council did not give these people any straight forward answer, this resulted in the group outrightly rejecting the proposed budget,” said Mr Dube.
He said council needed to do more to ensure that they gain the confidence of the communities they served and give people the results they were looking for.
Responding to written questions, BCC public relations officer, Miss Bongiwe Ngwenya said people have to realise the significance of budget consultations as they help review the budget performance of the previous year and set priorities for the coming year.
“One of the core values of the city of Bulawayo is consultation. Council emphasises citizen engagement in a bid to achieve open governance, noting that the decisions and programmes of council shall be built and utilised at all council levels. Active citizenship is a crucial link in the consultation process and necessary for the budget consultation process to achieve its objective and outcomes.
“The meetings are held so that stakeholders have their needs incorporated into the budget. They also allow for equity and equal impact assessment.
The meetings have ensured that residents contribute to the development of the city and they provide an opportunity for them to communicate on their priority areas and needs,” said Miss Ngwenya.
She revealed that during this year’s wave of meetings 3 932 residents attended, with 1 976 being males and 1 956 females.
Last year a total of 34 meetings were held with 2 441 stakeholders attending comprising 1 149 men and 1 292 women.
“In previous consultations council has been able to raise funding for the Insiza Pipeline duplication which has now been channelled towards the Epping Forest ($1 levy). We have also been able to get ideas on how to do some council business processes,” she said.
So as BCC hands over its budget projection to the Government for consideration and other councils start the same process the question still remains, how effective are these consultative meetings?
derick.khumalo