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Blessings Chidakwa, Herald Reporter
Cash-strapped Harare City Council splashed million on utility workshops held weekly and sometimes even twice a week outside Harare.
The Commission of Inquiry for Harare has heard that attending councillors and officials could collect large out-of-town allowances.
The worst of these meetings was a IPSAS policy validation and compliance meeting attended by 177 officials between June 6 and 8 this year at Kadoma Hotel and Conference Centre, at a cost recorded at ZiG154,6 million, close to US$11 million.
Barely a week later the council splashed US$122 000 at the same hotel for a one-night risk-based audit plan 2024 event between June 15 to 16.
On May 29, 2024, the city also blew about US$2 300 on lunch for seven people at the now white elephant Mayoral Mansion in Gunhill, Harare.
A rampant abuse of ratepayers’ money forced the Government to ban the local authority from conducting workshops or training programmes outside city limits without ministerial approval.
The ban followed revelations that councillors were working in cahoots with managers to loot council coffers by conducting endless workshops outside the city for which they would draw huge out of town allowances.
Money for allowances was being swiftly processed while that for key services such as burst pipe replacements would usually take long to be released.
Giving evidence before the commission yesterday, city acting finance director Mr Godfrey Kusangaya admitted that between December last year to July this year the city blew an equivalent of ZiG230 million, roughly US$16 million.
Quizzed by the evidence leader Mr Thabani Mpofu over worries about abuse of ratepayers’ money, Mr Kusangaya was at pains to explain.
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“We would hold workshops weekly and sometimes twice a week between December 2023 to July 2024. Sometimes I would tell my seniors that we need to scale down or confine to those which are critical. The appointment of the Commission of Inquiry for Harare stopped the meetings plus also the directive from the parent ministry.”
The revelations came after an exposé by this publication that last month 21 councillors from the human resources committee laid bare their penchant for luxury when it came to splashing ratepayers’ money on a useless trip.
The councillors reportedly demanded 120 litres each to go to Victoria Falls despite a bus having been provided to ferry them there.
Calculations show that the councillors gobbled up 2 520 litres of fuel and drew huge allowances.
While the trip in Victoria Falls lasted for three days, councillors from the same committee were also at Kadoma Hotel and Conference Centre where they spent a weekend holding a meeting which could have been convened in Harare. Human resources committee chairperson Councillor George Mujajati refused to comment on this spending.
Bongani Ndlovu