GARIKAI MAFIRAKUREVA

GUTU – Workers at Gutu Rural District Council have written a letter to the Chief Executive Officer, Alexander Mutembwa complaining against the procurement of a US$60 000 luxury vehicle for himself at a time the local authority is failing to pay workers’ salaries.
They said that the vehicle, the latest 2024 Fortuner was also not procedurally acquired because the funds came from the local authority’s estate account. They alleged that council is broke and workers are idle most of the time because there are no funds to carry out works.
They also accuse Mutembwa of deducting pension contributions for workers but not remitting them among a list of other financial irregularities.
Mutembwa confirmed in an interview with The Mirror that he recently bought the latest 2024 Fortuner but said the salary backlog is less than the three months alleged by the workers.
He said that there was nothing unprocedural about using the Estate account to buy the vehicle since this was a capital expenditure.
“This is a capital investment. We are allowed to use money from the estate account. I don’t see anything bad about that because the vehicle is registered in council’s name,” said Mutembwa.
“I can confirm that we bought a vehicle for $60,000 and that we owe workers monthly salaries, but it’s not true that we haven’t paid them for over three months. Our monthly wage bill is between $57,000 and $60,000. It is only one month that we haven’t paid our workers.
Gutu United Residents and Ratepayers Association (GURRA) Executive Director Lloyd Mupfudze said he is not aware of the matter.
Efforts to get a comment the Minister of Local Government and Public Works Winston Chitando were futile.
The workers also accused council of failing to return 40% of the levy and taxes back to the wards as per statutes and alleged that this money was being misappropriated.
“The policy is that 40% of the total amount collected from each Ward must be ploughed back to each respective ward for development. The funds have been misappropriated and used for purposes other than that for which they were intended.
“Out of the 41 Wards in the district, only a few (not more than 10) have received their plough-back, the reason being unavailability of funds,” reads part of the letter.