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The workshop began at a local hotel on Monday with departmental directors expressing concern over failure to meet set deadlines, low revenue inflows, inadequate staff complement and poor management approaches.
The Town Clerk, Mr Middleton Nyoni, councillors and other senior council staff are also attending the meeting, which is set to reform council operations.
In his report during the meeting finance director Mr Kimpton Ndimande said the local authority was facing financial woes due to poor revenue inflows.
He said the development had seen council failing to pay its creditors and suppliers on time and called for concerted efforts towards coming up with effective ways of recovering the more than $60 million owed to it in rentals.
The director of engineering services, Engineer Simela Dube, said the council was facing many challenges such as obsolete equipment and depleted skilled manpower.
“The department has low staff complement with only three to four registered engineers, which weakens our operations and results in poor succession plan. We are also affected by the brain drain.
We also have a challenge of ineffective bureaucratic decision making processes and general lack of business efficiency,” said Eng Dube.
“We also lack effective implementation strategy. This results in weak result orientation and procrastination. There is also weak performance management due to outdated appraisal system as well as lack of financial resources.”
Eng Dube said council should urgently come up with modern strategies of transforming its operations through attracting investment and increasing stakeholder participation.
The director of health services, Dr Zanele Hwalima, underscored the need to revise operations of council in order to meet residents’ demands.
“Our operations are hampered by inadequate funding as we operate on a cash budget. There is also burn-out among our staff,” said Dr Hwalima.
In an interview the Mayor, Councillor Thaba Moyo, said the workshop was a realisation of the need to improve council operations in line with modern changes.
“The meeting is there to bring policy makers and staff to come up with solutions to challenges that are facing the city.
“We need to examine our leadership strategies and find out why we are not meeting set deadlines and desired results,” said Clr Moyo.
“We also want to engage stakeholders to analyse the state of council performance and how it can be improved with the participation of all stakeholders.”
Clr Moyo said council was worried by poor revenue inflows and urged residents to pay their rentals to foster effective service delivery.
“All departments are talking about inadequate financing and we are saying what should we do about that. Of late there has been a slight improvement in payment of rentals but we are still not satisfied.
“The meeting should also identify outdated policies and by-laws, which are hindering progress. There is no need to keep such policies. We are saying all stakeholders should be involved and be part of our strategy. If we work collectively we can achieve good results,” said Clr Moyo.
“Our stakeholders expect good governance and excellent service delivery. We have to be mindful of the stakeholder needs and requirements at all times.”
He said the workshop should come up with the best strategy for the city to move forward and develop an implementation as well as monitoring and evaluation plan.
“Plans emanating from this workshop must be taken seriously and implemented for the benefit of residents,” said Clr Moyo.
Online Reporter