malvernmugadzikwa
Nokuthula Dube
THE recently resubmitted Harare City Council’s 2024 budget is falling short of expectations as it is failing to comply with guidelines meant to enhance service delivery in the capital, The Sunday Mail has established.
Council’s initial submission of the financial estimates to the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works was rejected last month.
A source privy to the latest developments said the resubmitted budget “is even worse than the first one and will most definitely be rejected again”.
It is believed one of the main issues preventing the approval of Harare’s budget was the city’s failure to operate an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system.
An ERP system is essentially a software suite that acts as a central hub for managing an institution’s core business activities.
It integrates business functions like accounting, finance, human resources, supply chain management and customer relationship management into a single platform. This eliminates the need for separate software systems for each department, reducing data silos and inconsistencies.
For Harare, the lack of a centralised system has meant that the city’s financial data is scattered across different departments, making it difficult to track spending, identify potential misuse of funds and generate accurate reports. This has led to inefficient revenue collection.
President Mnangagwa has since established a commission of inquiry to investigate corporate governance challenges that have plagued the Harare City Council over the past seven years. The five-member commission, chaired by retired High Court Judge Justice Maphios Cheda, was officially sworn in at State House on Wednesday.
Embarrassing
Addressing last week’s full council meeting, Harare Mayor Councillor Jacob Mafume laid bare the shortcomings of council’s budget submissions.
“It is so embarrassing why our budget was rejected for simple things like having an ERP, which the IT department is responsible for,” he said.
“I have been pondering on this for the past four years and nothing has been done. Why do we need the Government to intervene in small issues which we can do by ourselves? What is wrong? Why are we failing to have a proper billing system?
“A whole institution like this is functioning without Wi-Fi because of certain individuals who don’t want to cooperate, and they are sabotaging everyone. We are here because of the IT department . . . You cannot tell me that we are being outdone by the UZ (University of Zimbabwe), students as well as schools.”
He said the council’s dysfunctional information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure was costing the city.
“Right now, we need the date when the system is going to be active and functional,” said Mayor Mafume.
Feedback
In a separate interview, Harare Town Clerk Engineer Hosiah Chisango said: “We submitted our budget before the deadline. It is still to be approved. We have had discussions with the financial advisory at the ministry, so we are waiting for the result.”
The director of communications and advocacy in the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works Mr Gabriel Masvora said: “We received the budget from the City of Harare last month and now we are in the process of scrutinising it.
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