BCC risks Govt sanctions
THE Bulawayo City Council is facing possible sanctions from the Ministry of Local Government, Rural and Urban Development for operating without an approved budget for the year 2016, an official has said.
The local authority has been operating without a budget six months into the year, after its $153 million budget was rejected by the Government for not satisfying set standards.
One of the standards that the council’s budget failed to observe is the 70/30 percent ratio on service delivery and salaries.
Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Local Government, Rural and Urban Development Engineer George Mlilo told Sunday News that the Government was not amused by BCC’s failure to comply with set standards. Eng Mlilo said the local authority was breaking the law by operating without an approved budget.
He said the Government would take action against BCC councillors as they had shown that they lack the required capacity to run the affairs of the city by failing to comply with set standards.
“They are breaking the law and it’s punishable. What they are doing is criminal. I can’t specify what action we will take but we will certainly act,” he said.
Engineer Mlilo added, “It’s a sign that the councillors are failing to run the affairs of the city. We told them to revise their budget and comply with set standards but they haven’t.”
He said the council was shortchanging residents by operating without a budget.
“Obviously it affects service delivery and it shortchanges rate payers. They must explain themselves because we can’t let them continue like that,” he said.
The council’s chairperson of the finance and development committee, Councillor Mlandu Ncube, confirmed that the local authority’s budget had been rejected on the basis of failure to meet the 70/30 ratio on service delivery and salaries.
He, however, said council had communicated to the ministry that it could not comply with the 70/30 ratio as some of the salaries were directly linked to service delivery.
“We are still waiting to hear from the ministry but we have communicated our po s it i on . Some of our salaries are directly linked to service delivery and as such expenses should be categorised under service delivery and not salaries. For example salaries for nurses and municipal police can easily fall under service delivery expenses,” he said.
Bulawayo is one of the local authorities operating without an approved budget out of 32 councils. The other local authority facing a similar predicament is Zvishavane Town Council, whose budget is yet to be approved owing to bickering among councillors and council management.
BCC unveiled a $153 million total budget for 2016 which pegged revenue earnings at $107 million with no changes to the tariff structure. Zvishavane Town Council has proposed a $6,5 million 2016 budget with a few downward marginal changes from the 2015 budget.
Zvishavane Council chairperson councillor Esau Gwatipedza Dube reportedly refused to sign Town Secretary’s Mr Tinoda Mukutu’s performance contract, a pre-requisite for the town’s budget to be approved. The differences between Mr Mutuku and councillors saw the latter pushing for the former’s ouster on allegations of insubordination.
Mr Mutuku was, earlier this year suspended after being accused of dilly-dallying on implementing is the suspension of director of finance Mr George Jongoni over allegations of embezzling council funds. He has since been reinstated.
UCAZ secretary general Mr Livison Mtekede said the delays in approving local authority budgets was shortchanging ratepayers.
“It’s a cause for concern for us when local authorities operate without budgets. It has a bearing on service delivery and somehow shortchanges ratepayers,” he said.
Other local authorities who had their budgets rejected and were ordered to revise their plans are Harare, Mutare, Masvingo and Gweru, Chitungwiza, Ruwa, Plumtree, Norton, Hwange, Gwanda, Chiredzi and Chegutu. The councils have since had their budgets approved, albeit later into the year planned for. Beitbridge, Chipinge, Gokwe, Kwekwe, Mvurwi and Rusape are the only local authorities that had their budgets approved on time.
The submission deadline for urban council budgets for 2016 was October 2015, but only 18 local authorities managed
to meet it.