adminTHE Ministry of Lands and Rural Resettlement is failing to carry out its mandate of farm inspections due to serious financial constraints amid revelations that it owes $6,3 million to private surveyors. Speaking on the sidelines of the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC) annual congress in Victoria Falls last week, Dr Douglas Mombeshora said his ministry was supposed to carry two inspections on every farm annually but was failing to carry out even a single one.
“We are failing to carry out our mandate because there is no money. The Surveyor General’s Department is supposed to do surveys on farms that we have taken for resettlement so that the owners can know their permanent boundaries as no proper measurements have been done at the farms.
They are also supposed to do title surveys but the department has no equipment and personnel to do so hence our engaging private surveyors,” said Dr Mombeshora.
Dr Mombeshora said the challenge was that private surveyors charged them exorbitant fees that were not sustainable and that they owed more than $6 million for completed work.
He said his ministry had only received 15 percent of their budget allocation.
“We are already half way through the year and operating on a minimum budget which makes it very difficult to do our duty as a ministry. We are also being affected by personnel shortages since Government froze recruitments in the civil service,” he said.
Dr Mombeshora pleaded with the private sector to support Government and help them with the land audit as the process might take more than five years to complete if left to Government to undertake on its own.
He said they were in the process of procuring equipment to capacitate the Surveyor General’s Department after receiving $7 million from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and European Union (EU).
“We want to eliminate the need to hire out private surveyors but equip the Surveyor General’s office. We have already started the computerisation process after receiving money from UNDP and EU as well as training of staff and buying vehicles,” said Dr Mombeshora.
He said this was the first phase of ensuring that they stood on their feet and avoid accumulating debts.
Dr Mombeshora defended questions on why his ministry would require $35 million for the land audit which is meant to address various issues, among them land disputes, cases of multiple farm ownership, account for land that is being used productively as well as investigate reports that some resettled farmers were leasing out their farms to former commercial farmers.
He said alternative funding methods that include land rentals were being employed to raise money and carry out the land audit without much challenge from treasury.
The ZNCC annual congress was held from 25-27 June under the theme Transforming Economic Blueprints into Growth.
Key issues discussed included managing country risk factors, unmasking the economic enablers and interrogating the Zim Asset.
Londile Moyo
Online Reporter