LOCAL authorities in the country have been called upon to expedite the production of adequate draft by-laws and modernise those that are now outdated to facilitate the smooth running of councils and enable revenue collection this year.
This was said by the Minister of Local Government and Public Works, Cde July Moyo at the councils budget approval process in Gweru, which has been running since Tuesday.
In his opening remarks, Minister Moyo said the Ministry’s legal department will ensure that all councils are properly guided in the process of updating the by-laws.
“I expect all local authorities to expedite the production of adequate draft by-laws and modernised those that are now outdated to facilitate the smooth running of Council and enable revenue collection in 2023. The legal department will ensure that you are properly guided.
“Let me reiterate that local authorities must produce draft financial accounts, quarterly reports and monthly management consistently in line with statutory provisions. All local authorities should attempt to produce or updated Valuation Rolls by the third quarter and improve their digital systems to enhance revenue generation and general management of operations,” said Minister Moyo.
He bemoaned the decline in the number of up to date audited accounts, which he revealed declined from 52 to 43, revealing that the production and submission of final accounts for auditing shall be a Key Performance Indicator (KPI) in the performance contracts of Mayors/ Council Chairperson and Town Clerk/ Town Secretary/ Chief Executive Officer.
“The production of draft final accounts, quarterly reports and monthly management accounts is a statutory requirement under the Public Finance Management Act, Urban Councils Act and Rural District Councils Act.
“A few systems audits had been conducted and they revealed issues that need urgent attention some of which had been revealed during the prior year budget approval process, including lack of vision to take the Local Authority to world class status, poor spatial planning, in adequate digital systems and absence of policies and standard operating procedures,” said the Minister.
He said the guiding principle for all local authorities’ budgets should take heed from President Mnangagwa’s declaration that all 350 000 villages in the country should have running portable water and other services that make them an upper middle class society in line with NDS1.
“The budget approval process is also coming after a vigorous capacity building process concentrating on revenues generation, financial modelling and drafting of by-laws conducted and facilitated by my staff with the aim of addressing key issue that emanated from the prior budget approval process.
“The issues included lack of by-laws, absence of General Valuation Roll, non-compliance to Statutory Audits, lack of thorough comprehension of revenue sources as guided by Statutes, the Finance Chairpersons speech’s that lacked inspiration and late submissions of budgets,” said the Minister.
Yesterday the Bulawayo City Council were among the local authorities that presented their budget to the Ministry and had been advised to make amendments to their initial presentation.
BCC proposed a standstill 2023 budget of US$158 million with no rates increase although residents’ bills will continue being pegged in foreign currency. – Sunday News
