Harare resubmits 2024 budget

Nokuthula Dube

THE Harare City Council has resubmitted its 2024 budget to the Government for approval, but there are indications it will be rejected again if it fails to comply with guidelines meant to enhance service delivery, which were outlined by President Mnangagwa last year.

The city’s initial budget submitted to the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works was rejected for failure to align with the President’s blueprint, “A Call to Action, No Compromise to Service Delivery”.

The Hwange Local Board’s budget proposals were similarly turned down.

Harare was given up to April 19 to resubmit its proposed budget.

In an interview with The Sunday Mail, director of communications and advocacy in the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works Mr Gabriel Masvora said: “We have received the resubmitted budget from the local authority. Nothing has changed; deadlines remain the same. “For now, there is no timeframe (on approval) because these are the corrections. “As long as they don’t follow the proper procedures in correcting their budgets according to the guidelines we gave them, they will have to redo it again until we are satisfied.

“That is when we will approve.”

Harare town clerk Engineer Hosiah Chisango said they resubmitted the budget ahead of the deadline.

“We have attended to issues that were raised by the Minister of Local Government and Public Works in the new budget that we submitted on Wednesday, April 17,” he said. The Hwange Local Board is set to resubmit its plan tomorrow.The local authority’s acting town secretary, Mr Paulos Mabhureni, said: “We are ready to resubmit our budget on Monday.

“Yesterday (Wednesday), it went through the finance committee and today, it will go through a full council.

“After that, it will be ready to be resubmitted to the ministry on April 29.”

In rejecting Harare’s budget, the Government cited the absence of a functional computer-based organisational system, over-staffing and unaudited accounts, among other infractions.

The Government stated that Harare has continuously failed to procure an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system for the past five years, contributing to low revenue collection and poor service delivery.

The city’s budget proposal was, therefore, an inaccurate reflection of the council’s revenue generation capacity.