Heads to roll at BCC

Pamela Shumba Senior Reporter
ANOMALIES have been detected at the Bulawayo City Council following a probe by auditors sent by the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing.

The auditors completed the audit on Friday last week and the local authority was advised to put its house in order and follow the Ministry’s administration rules and regulations.

The Ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Engineer George Mlilo, yesterday told The Chronicle that the report is yet to be made public, but anomalies include abuse of finances, maladministration, procurement issues as well as irregularities in decision making and project implementation among others.

“There are quite a number of irregularities that the auditors picked as they carried out the audit at the Bulawayo City Council. The irregularities include handling of finances, maladministration, procurement procedures, decision-making and project implementation.

“We’re still in the process of compiling the report which will be out soon. I’ll also visit Bulawayo where I’ll have a meeting with the council officials as well as residents. This is a process that is meant to improve service delivery and improve administration at local authorities,” said Eng Mlilo.

He also indicated that the Ministry will not approve budgets that are not in line with the Government’s requirements.

“We rationalised salaries for all local authorities and we informed them that if their budget is not matching the ministry’s requirements we will not approve them.

“Bulawayo City Council didn’t comply with the rationalisation of the salaries and we ordered them to re-do the budget,” said Eng Mlilo.

He said while it was important for council staff to be paid, it was also vital for service delivery to be prioritised.

In February, the Government rejected 2016 budget proposals from 26 urban councils that wanted to prioritise salaries ahead of service delivery.

The Bulawayo City Council was one of them. It was ordered by the ministry to revise its 2016 budget after it failed to comply with requirements.