adminLovemore Zigara Midlands Correspondent
THREE major local authorities in the Midlands — Gweru, Kwekwe and Redcliff are operating without approved budgets after their drafts were rejected by the Ministry Local Government, Public Works and National Housing.
The situation has forced the councils to continue with last year’s budgets, six months into the 2015 municipal year.
The ministry rejected the budgets on the grounds that they did not meet the recommended 70/30 percent spending ratio. Under this arrangement councils are required to channel 70 percent of revenue collected towards service delivery with the remainder going towards the payment of salaries.
Gweru municipality, which is battling to deliver basic services such as the maintenance of roads and provision of water had its proposed $31,5 million that reflected a 35 percent increase of the 2014 budget, turned down. This was because a huge chunk of its revenue was being channelled towards payment of salaries.
Council’s assistant to the town clerk in charge of public relations, Tapiwa Marerwa, said council had sent amendments to the initial budget and were waiting for a response from the ministry.
Kwekwe Mayor, Councillor Matenda Madzoke said he had been informed that the local authority’s financial plan had been approved but were still waiting for written confirmation from the minister, Cde Ignatius Chombo to start implementing it.
“We sent our officials to Harare last week and they were told that the budget had been approved but we’re now waiting for formal communication from the minister to start implementing it.
“The delay in approving the budget has affected us in the provision of services especially on water because we raised the water tariff in the proposed budget as we had all along been subsidising residents on water treatment chemicals. We now don’t have anywhere to recover the shortfall because of funding constraints,” said the Kwekwe Mayor.
The local authority had its budget turned down on the basis that top management salaries and other perks needed to be slashed.
Redcliff Mayor, Clr Freddy Kapuya also said his council had re-submitted a revised $9 million budget from the initial proposal of $16 million.
Among the proposals that were scrapped was the purchase of the mayoral vehicle as well as those of top management and the hiring of employees, which the ministry said should be put on hold.
Clr Kapuya said the municipality was expecting feedback from the ministry by the end of next week.
Online Reporter