Local authorities capitalising on residents’ lack of understanding and ignorance of the budget process

THE third quarter of the year is traditionally when local authorities plan their budgets for the following year.

They make plans on the projects they intend to implement the following year and start consulting residents in terms of Local Government regulations as specified in the various pieces of legislation guiding each class of local governance.

Even at Central Government level, the national budget is crafted and presented in the last quarter.
Procedurally, local authority officials and councillors should go out to the residents and other stakeholders to consult them in order to come up with a budget.

In Victoria Falls, the local authority started consulting residents and stakeholders last month marking the start of the budget making process which will culminate into the presentation of a plan for 2024.

The city council called for meetings in September before extending the deadline to September 30 after getting a low response, among other reasons.

“The City of Victoria Falls wishes to inform its residents and stakeholders that the due date for submission of 2024 budget input has been extended to the 30th of September 2023. The local authority categorises input which is relevant to formulating an achievable budget,” said Town Clerk Mr Ronnie Dube in a statement to residents and stakeholders.

The categories are devolution, capital projects and service delivery.

Residents were expected to submit their input in these categories before physical meetings were done.

They were supposed to drop these at council offices in Chinotimba, Mkhosana and town office or send via email.

It is not known yet how many people responded but history has shown that few Victoria Falls residents respond to such calls.

The country’s newest city presented a US$20 million 2023 budget which was approved by Government in February this year.

It took time for the budget to be approved because at some point, the council was racing against time to present it to Government following a series of objections from residents who not only sought to disrupt meetings but also mobilised each other to write objections against the proposed budget.

Residents were not happy about a number of issues, among them the manner in which meetings were being conducted.

There was alleged disregard of their contributions which they said were overlooked over the years.

While citizens are allowed at law to object to a budget proposal, Victoria Falls residents crowd-pooled their objections together when legally each person should have written their own objection separately.

When the process of crafting a budget started last month, some residents boycotted the meetings while others disrupted gatherings demanding that the council first correct some mistakes of the past.

All budget meetings were supposed to take place on October 2 and 3 in the different wards.

On the first day on October 2, meetings were scheduled for wards 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 at different times and venues.

Ward 1 and 3 had theirs the following day at the council boardroom while special interest groups, that is women and people with disabilities had theirs on the same day.

However, a majority of residents continue to shun budget meetings as they claim council doesn’t respect their views and contributions.
Budgetary processes have been marred with contention over the years, a crisis brought about by poor co-ordination between the council and residents.

In Ward 8, residents blocked a meeting saying they were not happy that the council had sent junior staff to conduct the meetings.

They said the council should first give an update on issues raised by residents in the previous budget before they start crafting a new budget.

In instances where residents opposed the process, the local authority would proceed to send the proposed budget to the Government for approval without considering people’s objections, residents alleged.

The ratepayers would fold hands and just pay or fail to pay bills and rates and wait for the next season’s process.

An observation from budget processes over the years has shown that local authorities have been capitalising on residents’ lack of understanding and ignorance of the budget process.

Mr Obert Dube, a resident of Ward 8 in Mkhosana said residents want the council to address social challenges affecting the community.

He said residents want council to move some of the bars that are close to houses as this fuels drug and substance abuse.

“We have no youth centre or stadium which are facilities that can help reduce drug and substance abuse. We need these facilities so that we stop fighting. Our safety is at risk. In BD46 people use the bush to relieve themselves because there is no sewer system for 20 years. A bus rank is not yet ready.

“We are paying education levy but we have been asking each year to get a report of how much is remitted and we have never received any response.

We pay for street lights when we stay in houses that have no electricity. We tend to wonder whether we have leaders who care about us or not,” fumed Mr Dube.

He said residents were not happy that whenever there is a budget meeting, what they talk about is not implemented.

“At our first meeting, the council sent people who we don’t even know. We requested to have managers. So as residents we felt we were being taken for a ride and the meeting could not proceed,” said Mr Dube.

Government has in the past expressed concern over such impasses saying as a result, many local authorities’ budgets would be substandard.

According to the law, council bills are based on an approved budget. Only about a third of the 92 rural and urban local authorities usually meet the November deadline for submitting the budget.

Last year, the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works implored the Victoria Falls City Council to learn from Mutare City which had successfully implemented the Local Authority Digital Systems (LADS) which helps improve revenue collection and reduce corruption.

Council special levies are to be based on the valuation roll.

Local authorities are expected to have a collection efficiency of 67 percent to break even and have quality service delivery.

At some point, Victoria Falls residents have lobbied to force a review of the budget and the supplementary budget.

In the past few years, seeing the anomaly in local authorities, the Local Government Ministry has been conducting training workshops for councils to guide them on how the budget-making process is conducted.

What has come out from the workshops was lack of proper communication between the council and stakeholders, concerns by residents of the disregard of their views by the council and probably shortcuts being done by the local authority in the budget-making process.

Victoria Falls Combined Residents Association chairperson Mr Kelvin Moyo said council was forced to reschedule most of the meetings because of low attendance.

“It is the norm in Victoria Falls that most people don’t attend meetings as there is always this meeting apathy. For some it’s because of tight work schedules. For the few meetings that were held people tried to raise issues because as residents we are part of the politics on how development and service should be done and what needs to be budgeted for and prioritised. Views of residents should reflect on the budget and I hope this will be taken into consideration,” said Mr Moyo.

He urged council to prioritise key areas like water and refuse collection.

For rapport between a local authority and its stakeholders, there is need for capacity building in budget formulation, implementation and evaluation, automation of revenue systems, constant engagements and improvement of stakeholder engagements, information dissemination and public relations as well as timeously responding to grievances.