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Trust Freddy-Herald Correspondent
HARARE City Council collected US$100 in revenue from tuckshops between January and April this year, acting head of revenue collection, Mr Alfred Guni, has said.
Mr Guni revealed this while appearing before the Commission of Inquiry into the Governance of Harare.
The commission expressed concern over the city’s unusually low revenue collection, citing a significant disparity from the ZiG185 741 819 collected in tuckshop fees between April and September.
These funds were collected from tuckshop fees after council resolved that all compliant tuckshops in residential areas must pay fees to the council, provided they adhere to building inspectorate laws.
This comes amid revelations that there are approximately over half a million tuckshops in the capital.
When questioned about the paltry revenue, Mr Guni blamed the markets officer for failing to collect revenue, citing this as the reason for Harare’s unusually low earnings from tuckshops.
“So with the nature of tuckshops in the residential areas, the fees are collected by our markets officers who go around to collect. So if we collected as little as US$100, that just points to failure to collect by those designated to collect the funds.”
Mr Guni also admitted before the commission that US$100 over four months was practically too low, attributing this to corruption.
“I have made a report to the town clerk’s office to detail the corruption leakage points across all income streams of the city and reported the same to the auditor. I also reported the same to the audit chair to say when it comes to markets, we could be losing our revenues on these points and this is how,” he said.
In contrast, Mr Guni told the commission that ZiG185 741 819 was collected from April up to September from tuckshop fees.
Leading evidence from witnesses appearing before the commission, Mr Thabani Mpofu questioned the acting head of revenue collection about the disparities between the two periods.
When contacted for comment, Harare Mayor Jacob Mafume admitted that money was being looted, adding that much more could have been collected.
“It signifies a rot in that particular department, and whoever is superintending over that department, because surely, with so many tuckshops, we would expect more money to be collected, and to collect only $100 is beyond failure,” Mayor Mafume said.
Online Reporter