adminSamuel Kadungure Senior Reporter
LOCAL authorities in Manicaland are revamping and aligning their strategic plans in line with Integrated Result Based Management (IRBM) systems and the national economic blue print, Zim-Asset.
So far four local authorities – Mutare City, Makoni RDC, Chipinge RDC and Nyanga have gone through the standardised training on crafting IRMB and Zim-Asset compliant strategic plans.
Rusape Town Council started its five-day training on Wednesday.
It is hoped that a full embracement of IRBM and Zim-Asset by councils will result in accelerated economic growth, sustainable development and quality service delivery to the citizenry, enhancement of quality livelihoods and consolidation of empowerment programmes.
Provincial Administrator, Mr Fungai Mbetsa, who is overseeing the process, said all the 10 local authorities have up to October 30 to submit IRBM and Zim-Asset compliant strategic plans.
The council’s 2016 budgets will stem from these plans.
“In the past the strategic plans by local authorities were not consistent or similar in terms of formatting. We are now training them following the standardisation of how they should come up with strategic plans in line with the IRMB system and Zim-Asset,” said Mr Mbetsa.
“The new strategic plans will be used in coming up with budgets as well as their implementation matrix. The strategic plans will stretch up to the time-line of the Zim-Asset in 2018. Local authorities will be borrowing from the goals and targets of Zim-Asset. This will make it easy for the ministry to monitor local authorities and the councils to monitor themselves and evaluate the performance of employees,” said Mr Mbetsa.
RTC has invited its umbrella stakeholders, Rusape Residents Trust, business community and Government departments to give their input and expectations for inclusion in the new strategic plan.
Town secretary, Mr Joshua Maligwa, said that the strategic plan would help council with a clear cut direction, funding mechanism to achieve the targets as well as performance parameters for council and its employees.
He said there would be no room for sleepers in the organisation.
“We have invited all the critical stakeholders from residents, business community and Government departments so that they can give their input and expectations. In the past we had the challenge of stakeholders losing the compass and direction that the council is taking, and the new paradigm allows us to plan together so that we remain supportive of each other. In the end it is Rusape which will benefit. It will improve efficiency and quality of service. This is also a giant step in our quest to attain municipality status,” said Mr Maligwa.
RBM is a management philosophy and approach that focuses on the timely achievement of relevant goals and objectives through strategic planning, systematic implementation.
It focuses on resource usage, performance monitoring, measurement and reporting as well as the systematic utilisation of performance information to improve policy decision making.
RTC chairperson, Alderman Amon Chawasarira, said there was no room for sleepers as the re-alignment of councils operations to IRBM and Zim-Asset was designed to achieve tangible results from limited resources.
Alderman Chawasarira said local authorities were the axel on which the Zim-Asset gravitates.
“The economic blue print – Zim-Asset – has the potential to transform the socio-economic fortunes of Rusape and its success lies on various factors which among others include the extent to which local authority discharges its role.
“As a local authority, we need to totally embrace the Zim-Asset agenda and provide the necessary leadership relevant to its implementation in our area of jurisdiction. For us to play that strategic role, our governance and management systems should be revamped in line with this new paradigm,” said Alderman Chawasarira.
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