daniel chigunwe
Ivan Zhakata
Herald Correspondent
HARARE City Council yesterday launched the decentralisation programme as a strategy to enhance sustainable service delivery.
Speaking at the launch in Harare, town clerk Engineer Hosea Chisango said decentralisation was self-driven in ensuring that the residents pay for the services rendered in their suburbs.
Eng Chisango said district officers must uphold the core values of commitment, which are customer responsive, dedicated, devoted, self-driven, creative and motivated towards the attainment of council’s goals.
“There is also integrity which is being consistent, honest, trustworthy and upholding ethical behaviour in the deliverance of our mandate and transparency which is embracing openness, inclusive participation, fairness and access to information,” he said.
“The values are critical particularly now as we begin the implementation of decentralisation as a strategy to enhance sustainable service delivery. As district officers in your new enhanced roles as drivers of service delivery and revenue collection at the local level, it is important that you are customer-responsive, dedicated and self-driven.
“Self-driven particularly in ensuring that the residents in your districts pay for the services rendered. You must be self-driven in ensuring that customer complaints are addressed on time. You will all agree with me that we have reached an all-time low in revenue collection because as a collective we have not made reasonable efforts to collect what we are owed.”
Eng Chisango said the silo mentality continued to affect council operations and they have situations where revenue officers and technical teams do not want to collaborate with the district officers.
That is going to be a thing of the past and the acting human capital director is going to present a raft of measures to be implemented to address the fragmentation that is threatening the viability of the city,” he said.
“District officers and revenue officers are key players in the optimization of revenue collection within districts. That is why we are having this conversation with you. Close collaboration between you and others within the districts is key to unlocking our potential.
“We have no luxury to engage in unnecessary conflicts. We must roll up our sleeves and fight together for the good of our city. The bottom line is that every employee of the City of Harare must work towards achieving sustainable development and service delivery in our council.”
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