Of corruption, misplaced priorities and inefficient service delivery

EDITOR — There are quite a number of factors that negatively affect service delivery in most towns and cities.

Mostly, poor service delivery is a direct result of pitiable management, corruption and misplaced priorities by municipalities and this has been negatively affecting economic growth of local towns and cities.

For a long time, local authorities have failed dismally in handling public funds. Local authorities get their revenue from rates and service charges paid by residents and ratepayers.

From these collections, local authorities are legally obliged by the Urban Councils Act Chapter 29:15 Second Schedule Section 198 Paragraph 17, to provide services such as water, sewerage, drainage, street lighting and fire services among others to the community.

In order to meet quality service delivery commitments, local authorities need to seize the opportunities that are available to them and overcome revenue collection challenges.

It is imperative to assess the effectiveness of revenue collection and match it against service delivery in every town and city to promote the proper use of revenue collected by these councils.

Recently, Gweru City Council management exposed its misplaced priorities when it put forward a 2019 budget submission where they are planning to purchase all-terrain 4×4 vehicles for top officials and a posh mayoral Mercedes Benz valued at $660 000.

Local authorities are a crucial part of the economy and their proper functioning has a great impact on a nation’s economy and the living standards of the people.

In the past few months, there was a cholera outbreak in most parts of Harare, where a number of people died.

This outbreak was attributed mostly to poor service delivery in Harare, which include failing to provide adequate clean water as well as failing to frequently collect garbage.

City councils should therefore make sure that people in their areas have at least the basic services they need. These services have a direct and immediate effect on the people’s quality of life in communities.

It is worthy to note that poor service delivery can also make it difficult to attract businesses or investors to an area, thereby limiting job opportunities for residents.

Recently speaking at the Public Sector Audit Conference, President Emmerson Mnangagwa said his Government will not tolerate the siphoning of public funds for nefarious and selfish gains.

He said it was disheartening that Government was losing large amounts of money due to fraud. President Mnangagwa said those public officials who will be caught on the wrong side of the law shall also face the full wrath of the law.

City councils should take a leaf from Government desire to eradicate corruption. They should also take a cue on how it handles the issue of vehicle procurement for ministers and legislators. The Minister of Finance and Economic Development, Professor MthuliNcube said Government suspended the purchase of these vehicles and channelled some of the funds towards the containment of the cholera outbreak.

The Government’s decision was positive and welcomed by many citizens.

In that regard, spending public funds obliges Government or any public office to make choices on priorities, through a regular budgetary cycle of planning, negotiation and implementation.

Thus, local municipalities should maximise the effectiveness of public revenue collections through securing the greatest value from the spending decisions, avoiding waste, fraud and corruption.

All local municipalities should be concerned about the people’s safety and health first at the expense of purchasing luxurious vehicles.

In the past most councillors were fingered in underhand deals which compromised service delivery and in some cases government had to intervene to rescue the situation, for instance the current project to resurface badly damaged roads.

Continuous leadership of local authorities by the same crop and calibre of greed councillors is stifling development. In actual fact, their leadership has proved to be disastrous.

Sibusiso Ndlamini