The Government deserves commendation for ordering local authorities struggling to pay their workers to stop spending public money on foreign trips, unnecessary workshops and vehicles for senior officials.
At a time when many councils are failing to provide reliable basic services, this is a welcome insistence that priorities must be put right.
Under Local Authorities’ Circular Number 9 of 2026, councils owing salaries cannot fund foreign trips or workshops outside their jurisdictions, while those with salary or statutory arrears cannot buy vehicles for senior officials’ personal use.
Essential service-delivery vehicles and equipment remain permissible, subject to strict justification. The directive also requires time-bound financial recovery plans with specific payment schedules and transparent milestones.
These are sensible measures. There is no convincing justification for a council executive to travel abroad at public expense while cleaners, nurses, engineers and other municipal employees wait months for wages. Nor should expensive retreats and new executive vehicles outrank repairs to burst water pipes, blocked sewers and broken-down refuse trucks.
Municipal revenue comes from residents and businesses who expect safe water, passable roads, functioning streetlights and regular waste collection. Every dollar wasted on prestige and administrative comfort is money unavailable for those services. Workers, too, are creditors whose livelihoods should never be treated as an afterthought.
But issuing a circular is the easy part. The Government must now demonstrate the resolve to enforce it consistently across councils.
The ministry should require monthly returns showing salary arrears, statutory deductions outstanding, payments made, travel approvals, workshop costs and vehicle purchases. Financial recovery plans must contain measurable deadlines, not vague promises to improve efficiency.
Progress should be checked against bank records, payrolls and procurement documents, rather than accepted on the strength of assurances from council managers.
Where officials evade the directive by reclassifying leisure trips as study tours, splitting procurement contracts or routing spending through affiliated entities, the ministry must investigate and impose appropriate consequences within the law. Repeat offenders should face disciplinary action and, where evidence warrants it, referral to oversight and law-enforcement bodies.
Enforcement must also extend beyond expenditure controls. Councils need stronger billing systems, credible debt collection, transparent procurement and routine publication of financial performance. The Auditor-General has previously identified weaknesses in municipal revenue collection and financial management. Cutting travel budgets will achieve little if leakages elsewhere continue unchecked.
Crucially, austerity must not become an excuse to starve essential services. Vehicles for refuse collection, water repairs and emergency response are fundamentally different from luxury cars for executives. The directive rightly recognises that distinction; officials must apply it honestly.
Residents should see tangible benefits: salaries paid on time, statutory obligations honoured and more resources reaching neighbourhood services.
Public reporting would allow ratepayers to judge whether councils are changing their behaviour.
The Government has taken the right first step. It must follow through with inspections, transparent monitoring and firm accountability. Financial discipline will mean something only when wasteful spending stops and municipal services begin to improve.
