WATCH: Minister slams councils for good corporate governance failure

THE Minister of Local Government and Public Works, Cde Winston Chitando, yesterday slammed local authorities for failing to meet minimum good corporate governance standards as he revealed that only 23 out of 92 local authorities have had their budgets approved.

He said it was shocking and disheartening that some local authorities have not audited their accounts since 2019 while some have been in salary arrears for as long as 10 months.

In some cases, local authorities were paying their employees net salaries but not remitting statutory payments.

Addressing chief executive officers and chairpersons of the 60 Rural District Councils in the country in Bulawayo during their annual general meeting, Minister Chitando said in line with President Mnangagwa’s “Call to action, no compromise to service delivery” blueprint, which was launched in November last year, there have been clear do’s and dont’s before approval of budgets and most local authorities have been found wanting.

“There is more work to be done in a lot of budgets presented to us. In the next two weeks, you shall be getting the approval on budgets,but there are some that have been totally rejected while some are getting conditional acceptance,” he said.

“Out of the 92 local authorities budgets, the number which has been accepted out rightly is only 23. As I said the remainder are being totally rejected while others are conditionally accepted,” said Minister Chitando.

He said as of January this year, the analysis of the budget has shown that there is a large number of local authorities that are not up to date with audited accounts.

“Colleagues, it’s very important to have audited accounts, we have some here who last had those accounts in 2019, yet we are here wining and dining. When His Excellency spoke about the valuation of land and master plans, it was to say let us tighten our balance sheets,” said Cde Chitando.

“As we improve service delivery, each local authority should be bankable, but the sad reality is that most of you are not bankable because the accounts are not up to date and in some cases, the balance sheet is weak yet sitting on good land, which is not even in the balance sheet as it is not being utilised to its full value to generate the necessary income,” he added.

The minister said local authorities must up their game and be in a position for the Government to facilitate for them to get short, medium and long-term funding to improve service delivery, which can only be possible if have audited accounts and have projections of income and expenditure as outlined in the blueprint.

As the country moves towards an upper middle-income economy, it is very important for all local authorities to try and think outside the box to increase revenue generation instead of relying on increasing rates, said Minister Chitando, adding that the blueprint is the first stage of intervention in moving towards Vision 2030.

He said a second stage of interventions will be announced in due course and once the second stage gets rolled out, there will be more demands in terms of what is required from local authorities.

In an interview at the end of the meeting, the president of the Association of Rural District Councils of Zimbabwe, who is also Goromonzi Rural District Council chairperson, Councillor Golden Shamu said the association took note of the concerns raised and will soon meet to engage the concerned councils with a view of mapping a way forward.

“I think it’s a learning curve as he said, previously budgets were presented to the ministry and would get approved but now there are new checks and balances. He outlined some of the shortfalls that have been picked such as audited financial statements, and corporate governance among other issues,” he said.

“As an association, we are going to address the raised issues to say which of the councils are lacking in that regard and assist each other to address the named challenges,” said Clr Shamu.