adminScores of frustrated enumerators have complained over delays in the payment of their outstanding allowances.
The enumerators claim that they used their own money for transport during the 12-day exercise hoping that the agency would pay them the $500 it promised.
However, Mr Dzinotizei said Treasury had not released the money to the rest of the enumerators.
“The issue is that payment depends on the resources available. We were recently given $1,7 million to complete payment of enumerators for the two provinces. We have also submitted a request for funding for the remaining provinces.
“I have worked in the Treasury and I understand the challenges there. People should understand that $12,6 million was committed to the process by the United Nations Population Fund (UNPF) and that only $10,2 million was deposited,” he said.
Mr Dzinotizei could not disclose how much was needed to complete the payment of remaining enumerators.
He said the money from UNPF has been used to pay training centres for food, accommodation and conferencing.
Mr Dzinotizei said the donors refused to avail funding for the payment of enumerators’ allowances. He said he will continue putting pressure on Treasury to expedite the release of the funds.
Turning to the update on the census report, Mr Dzinotizei said Zimstat officers were still processing and analysing data with the view of coming up with a preliminary summary report.
“We are still processing the data that was gathered and by December we expect to come up with a preliminary report.
However, the final census report would be out between September and October 2013. This is meant to allow cross checking and rigorous analysis of the data in order to come up with quality results,” he said.
“During the process we will engage experts and assess the data through all the required stages for purposes of validity. This is critical because the census is there to guide policy formulation and it has to be based on accurate information.”
The 2012 population census was marred by disturbances when it started.
Thousands of prospective enumerators wishing to take part in the process jostled at various centres countrywide to take part in the process.
The enumeration started at midnight on 17 August with counting of vagrants and those in transit.
The process was also affected by late dissemination of material while transport shortages also affected the deployment of some officers to remote areas.
The population census is conducted after every 10 years.
Online Reporter