adminSukulwenkosi Dube Plumtree Correspondent
LOCAL authorities have been told to stop whining about the economic challenges and start income generating projects which help boost their revenue bases, an official has said.
Association of Rural District Councils of Zimbabwe Secretary General, Rodgers Mozhentiy said councils should stop complaining about non-payment of rates and put in place strategies to make ends meet.
He was speaking on the sidelines of a Matabeleland South provincial meeting for rural district councils chief executives and council chairpersons.
“All councils, be it urban or rural, are complaining of non-payment of taxes. Some are always highlighting their failure to provide services. It is high time they stopped complaining and come up with an alternative way of raising revenue besides the traditional way of relying on ratepayers,” said Mozhentiy.
He said all councils nationwide were facing challenges in collecting rates.
Mozhentiy said they had to identify resources in their areas of jurisdiction and turn them into income generating projects.
“Low revenue collection should not be used as an excuse for poor service delivery by councils. Local authorities have to stop recalling the revenue they lost after the government directive to cancel debts,” he said.
Mozhentiy said some of the local authorities would not have recovered the money trapped as debts even if government had not intervened.
He said each local authority had property which they should utilise.
“Some councils, especially those in Matabeleland, have farms which they own. Before they start complaining on revenue collection, they must first consider whether they are utilising the land they have to the fullest and maximising on production.
“You will find that some councils have farms but the land is just lying idle,” said Mozhentiy.
He said councils can engage political and traditional leaders in urging communities to pay their rates.
Mozhentiy said a number of councils were overburdening their cash inflows by deducting salaries and carrying out administrative work from the little money they collected.
“Treasurers employed by councils should spend their time planning ways to boost cash flows and not sit in the office waiting for money from ratepayers. The truth is that some of these rate payers especially those in rural communities genuinely do not have money,” he said.
He said plans were underway to have council chairpersons issued with vehicles while several capacity building programmes were lined up for CEOs and council chairpersons.
During the meeting, CEOs and council chairpersons pointed out that the bulk of residents were not paying rates.
The Plumtree Town Council recently revealed that they had so far collected 20 percent of their projected $3,645,661 revenue. In September, Mangwe Rural District Council had collected $514,086 out of a projected yearly budget of $2,9 million.
The Association for Rural District Councils of Zimbabwe meetings are held in all provinces quarterly.
Online Reporter