The Sunday Mail
Sunday Mail Reporter
The Local Government Laws Amendment Bill seeks to address two issues – what constitutes abuse of duty in councils and establishment of an independent tribunal to deal with disciplinary cases. Officials in urban and rural councils have been, for years, under the spotlight for corruption, mismanagement, nepotism and gross incompetence.
The nefarious activities have prompted Government not to approve 2016 budgets of some local authorities after they were observed to be skewed towards luxuries such as allowances at the expense of service delivery. According to the Report of the Auditor-General for the year ended December 2015 on local authorities, most councils are operating under gross mismanagement, poor accounting and procurement systems that breed corruption.
“The majority of councils were not up to date with their audited financial statements, with some being as far behind as 2012 financial year,” read part of the report compiled by Auditor-General, Mildred Chiri.
“There was an inadequate control over receipting of payments in respect of accounts receivable in a number of councils.
“… In some instances, tender procedures were not followed. The findings warrant the attention of management and those charged with governance.
The audit revealed that most of the weaknesses emanated from governance issues, revenue collection and debt recovery, employment costs and procurement of goods and services.”
In a bid to bring to book those implicated in the running down of urban and rural council, Parliament is currently debating the Local Government Amendment Bill in line with the Constitution of Zimbabwe. The Bill spells out terms warranting removal from office of mayors, chairpersons and councillors and constitution of an independent tribunal to finalise suspension cases.
