adminSukulwenkosi Dube Plumtree Correspondent
MANGWE Rural District Council has collected only seven percent of this year’s projected budget which is sitting at $2,4 million, a development which the local authority’s chief executive officer said was crippling service delivery.In a report presented at a full council meeting, Mr Nketa Mangoye Dlamini said this year’s revenue collection rate had dropped.
He said efforts which the council had taken to engage debt collectors had been fruitless.
“The budget performance stood at seven percent by the end of the first quarter as we have managed to collect $168 000 out of a projected yearly budget of $2,4 million.
“This is unfavourable compared to last year’s budget performance where we had collected 10 percent of the budget,” said Mr Dlamini.
He said the local authority was exploring different sources of funding with funding organisations. He said the council had set a strategy to expand cattle fattening projects and piggery projects in order to boost revenue collection.
Mr Dlamini said the local authority had a huge challenge of ballooning creditor and debtors levels. He said the council would involve councillors to assist in collecting revenue.
Mr Dlamini said due to financial constraints the council had a salary backlog of two months.
He said the council was working with last year’s budget as the budget proposal for the year 2015 which sat at $2,8 million had not been approved.
Mr Dlamini said the council was faced with a shortage of staff but financial challenges made it impossible to fill gaps.
“The first quarter of the year has been filled with great challenges and this has forced us to put on hold several planned activities. We are currently focusing on the basics,” he said.
He said the roads department had managed to carry out road maintenance works of 160 kilometres in four wards. He said the main source of funding was Zinara while the council also made contributions.
Mr Dlamini said 67 boreholes out of an expected target of 129 had been repaired so far in six wards in order to address water challenges faced by communities.
He said seven schools and four clinics were under construction in the district. He said three of the secondary schools had already enrolled pupils but they did not have infrastructure which forced pupils to learn from community halls and some from primary schools.
Mr Dlamini said once completed these clinics were going to benefit more than 10 000 people with reduced distances.
The secretary general for the Association of Rural District Councils of Zimbabwe, Mr Rodgers Mozhentiy recently urged local authorities to start income-generating projects which could boost their revenue collection.
He said all councils nationwide were facing a challenge in collecting rates but that could not justify poor service delivery.
Mr Mozhentiy said councils had to identify resources in their areas of jurisdiction and turn them into income generating projects.
Online Reporter