MIN CHOMBO HITS OUT AT COUNCILS OVER SALARY ARREARS

Paul Pindani in CHINHOYI

MASHONALAND West Provincial Minister, Marian Chombo, has read the riot act to local authorities in the province who are saddled with heavy bills of salary arrears.

Minister Chombo read the riot act during an interface with Urban and Rural authorities at Cooksey Memorial Hall in ChinhoyI yesterday.

Local authorities such as NyamiNyami and Chinhoyi have the biggest chunk of salary arrears.

NyamiNyami Rural District Council has not paid its workers for the past 10 months while Chinhoyi has a six-month salary backlog.

Other local authorities are two to three months in salary arrears while some have cleared their debts.

“You should not borrow for consumption, we should not borrow because it’s like you are digging a hole and you will not be able to get out of it.

“If you are ever going to dip into the estate account, you should have authority from the Minister of Local Government because you are borrowing from it.

“He is the custodian.

“You will be caught with your hands in the cookie jar.

“That’s not your area.”

Minister Chombo said what really bothered her was that the presentations by the councils painted a rosy picture.

“Even the President is worried about the drop in the service delivery nationwide but the picture that you painted is not like that.

“We have to go down from my Ministry to local authorities to see that the information that you presented is really what is existing on the ground.

“When we come here and do the presentations, it is an opportunity to be able to correct each other and proffer some suggestions so that we can mitigate that problem.

“The issue of water, if you listen to what the Minister of local government has been saying, I think they have allowed local authorities to go into partnerships to outsource the service of water delivery.”

She added:

“The pipes are antiquated and they are not able to hold given the increase in the populations that have migrated from the rural to urban areas.

“So, let’s copy from what the Minister has proffered as a solution.”