adminSukulwenkosi Dube-Matutu, Plumtree Correspondent
MANGWE Rural District Council has approved a $2,2 million budget for 2017 with councillors expressing concern that most villagers were not aware of the purpose of the budget.
About 1 000 people from the district attended the budget consultation meetings that were held in all the 17 wards out of a district population of about 67 000.
The councillor of Marula Ward, Ngonidzashe Chemhuru said most villagers in her area did not turn up for budget consultation meetings. She said of those in attendance expressed ignorance on the purpose of the consultation meetings.
“It appears that most villagers don’t understand what the budget is all about and they don’t see its significance in their lives.
“To them the budget consultation meetings are part of the regular meetings that are conducted by the local authority.
“There is a need for villagers to be sensitised on the budget so that they are able to make meaningful contributions. As it stands the attendance was very poor when compared to the population.
The budget has to reflect people’s views and this can happen if they are consulted in their numbers,” said Clr Chemhuru.
The local authority has reduced their budget for 2017 from this year’s $3,2 million budget to $2,2 million.
Presenting the budget statement during at a full council meeting Councillor Clement Majahana said the decrease was mainly due to a reduction in expected collections for the coming year and not tariffs.
“It is proposed that the council’s budget for the year 2017 go down from $3 251164 to $2 256 315. This is after a realisation that the budget for previous years has been unattainable because of harsh economic conditions,” he said.
Clr Majahana said the local authority had revised mining levies and school service charge fees.
He said the service charges that were being paid by council had also been revised from $30 per term for each school to $0.50 per child each term.
He said this fee will cater for services rendered by council to schools such as audits and assistance in building projects.
He said tuck-shop licence fees had been reduced from $78 and $84 for communal areas and service centres respectively to $70 per annum.
Clr Majahana said the council would also introduce a fee for drilling a boreholes, replacement of pegs, peg search and re-inspection.
Speaking on the 2016 budget review Clr Majahana said by September the council had collected only $289 602 of its annual $3,2 million budget.
Clr Majahana said this had affected council operations and service delivery.
“Council’s revenue sources continue to decline as seen by the movement of collection of unit tax to the Ministry of Lands.
“As at September 2016 council received only $1 705 whereas in the same period last year we had collected $103 000,” he said.
He moved to have the budget for the year 2017 and other councillors seconded.
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