SIMBARASHE MTEMBO
MIRROR REPORTER

MASVINGO – Government has approved 2024 financial budgets for 89 out of 92 local authorities with the remaining councils being Harare City, Hwange Local Board and Gokwe Town Council.
Local Government and Public Works spokesperson, Director Gabriel Masvora confirmed the position to The Mirror.
He said the reason why budgets of the three are yet to be approved is that there are some issues that still need to be dealt with.
“As alluded to by Minister Winston Chitando, of the 92 local authorities in the country, only Harare, Hwange Local Board and Gokwe Town Council budgets are not approved,” he said.
All local authorities have been using the 2023 rates until the approval of their budgets.
Harare City spokesperson, Stanley Gama could not be reached for a comment by the time of going to Press.
According to a statement released to The Mirror by Masvora, Harare’s US$570 million budget proposal was stopped because of eight main reasons. These include failure by the local authority to address the issues of water provision, sewer and waste removal and this is key because of the severe cholera outbreak last year.
Harare is breaching Estate Fund management whose policy is not to use proceeds for operational costs. The issue of overstaffing resulting in more money being channeled towards salaries instead of service delivery is also raised among the concerns.
Harare City books have not met external auditors’ requirements since 2017 and this year’s proposed budget does not address the issue. There is no monitoring of council projects with private players and remittance to council.
The Council has failed to procure an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system for the past 5 years despite recommendations to acquire one from Parliament and the Auditor general. ERP allows a business entity to keep track of all its operations.
In the case of Hwange, the local authority failed to produce financial statements since 2020, there is poor revenue collection. There is also understaffing and no solutions proffered in the budget proposal.
“Unless these issues are addressed, in terms of the law and the call to Action Blueprint launched by President Mnangagwa, the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works is not in a position to approve the budgets,” said Minister Chitando.