Councillors, management pocket huge allowances from visits

THE Bulawayo City Council has gobbled thousands of dollars in allowances for councillors and senior management on expeditions to other local authorities, in what the local authority says is meant to gain insights on how to improve service delivery in the city, it has been established.

Seven council standing committees have to date made the trips to various local authorities in the country, with the delegations ranging from 10 to 15 comprising both councillors and senior council officials. Travel and subsistence allowances, to such expeditions are determined by ministerial circulars, a move that was derived after it was noted that some councils were awarding each other unsubstantiated allowances.

For accountable allowances, where one has to produce receipts upon return, bed and breakfast will be a hotel rate applicable at the time. For unproved, where no receipts are required, bed and breakfast allowance is US$75 per day. And when secured separately, breakfast will be US$15 and lunch US$20 and dinner US$25. Unproved supplementary allowance shall be US$20 per day.

Most of the trips travelled by the committees are for a maximum of three days and in some cases some councillors feature in more than one committee. This therefore means each councillor and official is subject to about US$285 per trip.

Responding to questions from Sunday News, council corporate communications manager

Mrs Nesisa Mpofu confirmed the “look and learn” visits saying the local authority got clearance from the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works.

She revealed that the committees that had travelled were the Finance and Development (Mutare City Council), Future Water Supplies and Water Action (Lake Gwayi-Shangani), Health, Housing and Education (Victoria Falls City Council), Business and Investment (Harare City Council), Town Lands and Planning (Gweru City Council), Audit Committee (Mutare City Council) and the Environmental Management and Engineering Services (Masvingo City Council).

“Council on 2 February 2022 resolved that Council Committees undertake look and learn visits to various local authorities. The aim of the visits was to exchange notes and also to have an appreciation of how other sister local authorities were performing in terms of service delivery under this tough economic environment. The proposed look and learn programme had been submitted to the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works for approval. So far all the Committees had since undertaken their visits,” said Mrs Mpofu.

She added that the programme had been budgeted for under training and workshops for councillors. She said after the visits, reports were drawn which were submitted to relevant Council Committees and thereafter to full council outlining the lessons learnt and what the city could implement towards the improvement of service delivery. She said already resolutions had been made by council towards improvement in service delivery drawn from the visits.