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Patrick Chitumba, Midlands Bureau Chief
THE Ministry of Local Government and Public Works is introducing a standard billing system for local authorities called the Local Authority Digital Application System so that they all have the same billing formula that doesn’t disadvantage ratepayers.
Residents in Bulawayo, Gweru and other local authorities have complained about the council’s “flawed” billing system, which they blame for high water consumption penalties and disconnections.
Residents have been complaining that there are discrepancies between the meter reading records on their water bills and the actual readings at their houses.
In an interview on the sidelines of the just-ended local authorities’ 2023 budget approval process in Gweru, the acting permanent secretary in the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works Mr Emmanuel Ngwarati said the Ministry is addressing the billing system used by local authorities.
He said local authorities have been billing ratepayers using different bills and exchange rates which led to complaints by ratepayers.
“It’s only a formula that was not being followed by all councils. So we need a uniform formula for all and that is why we are introducing a standard billing method that we want. We are looking at introducing a software that is going to be applied by all local authorities which is the local authority digital application system. The formula will not disadvantage ratepayers,” said Mr Ngwarati.
He said the new system will be used by all local authorities to standardise the revenue collection systems.
“I think we will be able to come up with maximum revenue collection for local authorities which will be in sync with the Ministry of Finance,” said Mr Ngwarati.
In terms of 2023 budget presentations by the 92 local authorities, he said the Ministry is happy with the presentations adding that all councils managed to submit their budgets on time which were then analysed.
Those with grey areas, Mr Ngwarati said, were guided on what to do so that the budget is approved.
“We looked at their submissions and made recommendations to the Minister. Most of them have improved from last year and we are happy with that and that is why we want to continue with this kind of engagement in the forum where we engage every council and make recommendations,” he said.
Mr Ngwarati said it was pleasing that most of the councils have managed to put their programmes in line with the National Development Strategy (NDS 1) and Vision 2030.
“We really need to emphasise on the council including or aligning their 2023 budget to the national strategies and also the current budget presented by the Minister of Finance Professor Mthuli Ncube. So they have to align their budget with issues or policies that are raised by the Government,” he said.
Professor Mthuli Ncube
Mr Ngwarati said the process also resulted in the ministry identifying deficiencies in revenue collection by some local authorities.
He said some are quite ambitious and presented unrealistic budgets some of which would have resulted in the overburdening of the ratepayers.
“We also look at efficiency in terms of billing systems and expect every council to efficiently bill clients so that they maximise revenue collection. Another aspect is that we don’t want councils to overburden ratepayers by overcharging them at exorbitant rates,” said Mr Ngwarati.
Generally, he said from 2022 there has been great improvement by councils in terms of abiding by the approved budgets.
“We didn’t have many deviations from approved budgets and expect that trend to continue. After approval of budgets by the ministry, we don’t expect deviations from councils,” he said.
Mr Ngwarati said the ministry gets constant reports from local authorities which are submitted as minutes and resolutions as part of a system to monitor how they perform to curb deviations from the approved budget.
“Councils submit minutes and resolutions to the ministry and we go through the minutes and resolutions so that we really monitor their expenditure patterns throughout the year to see if they are in line with the approved budgets,” he said. In the event of some deviations, Mr Ngwarati said the minister is empowered to deal with that according to the Urban Council and Rural District Councils Acts.
“If there are any deviations, appropriate action will be taken against that council. The challenge is that some of the councils are behind in audits, and we hope they catch up. Some are behind as far as 2019 in terms of audits. We hope 2023 they will catch up and that way we’ll be able to manage them properly,” he said.
Local government and Public Works Minister July Moyo said the Government adopted the system of the budget approval process so that they can have a deeper understanding of what local authorities will be proposing.
He said the process is also to make sure that they follow the Constitution as well as laws that govern their operations such as the Urban Councils Act and the Rural District Councils Act.
“Some of them have done very well in terms of presentations of their budgets and also making sure their audited accounts are up to date and we have looked at what they want to do in their areas. People will be waiting for a vision to develop the rural and urban areas. We also looked at projects they did and finalised in 2022, which is what the people must know. We think a lot of councils have done well but they are not publicising their success stories. They need to communicate with their constituency,” said Minister Moyo.
“In a nutshell, I can say we had very good presentations from the councils which are aligned with Vision 2030 and NDS 1. We also want to see them doing local economic development plans which are gender sensitive. In a lot of cases, they managed to articulate gender sensitivity and the challenge was just in terms of areas of employment creation. We want an improved employment situation in local authorities either through their own projects or through attracting investment that can be from Government projects or private investments in their areas.”
Online Reporter