Who will stop the Gokwe rot?

17 Jan, 2016 - 00:01 0 Views
Who will stop the Gokwe rot? 3. The road that lead to Gokwe Town House

The Sunday Mail

Garikai Mazara
The charge sheet that has been drawn by Gokwe residents, against its town council, gives an impression that the Ministry of Local Government and Urban and Rural Development has a lot of work on its hands if it needs to bring sanity and order to local authorities.
According to several residents interviewed in Gokwe last week, the town council has not known sanity, either in terms of its financial prudence or management style, for almost five years now and they feel it is time to put a stop to the rot.
Controversial Appointment of Melania Mandeya

.4. The Mazda BT50 bought for $68 000  (Pictures1,3,4 by Innocent Makawa

.4. The Mazda BT50 bought for $68 000
(Pictures1,3,4 by Innocent Makawa

When Tapiwa Marongwe was relieved of his duties as town secretary following a number of allegations against him, Gokwe Town Council advertised for the post. After the closing date for applications, the town council received “a directive from Harare to re-advertise the post, as there was are a missing application”. How Harare got to know that there was a missing application, no one at the council could explain.
After re-advertising and short-listing three names, Loud Ramakgapola was duly appointed town secretary. But, according to councillors and residents of Gokwe, he was not to last long. “He was frustrated in every manner possible,” said a source, such that only four months into his tenure he offered to resign.
“The natural course,” further explained the source, “would have been for the town council to re-advertise the post or if there was need to cut on costs and time, to take the person who came in second in the previous interviews. We were surprised, however, when Melania Mandeya, who came fourth in the previous interviews was seconded to be town secretary for Gokwe.”
Flouting of Appointing Procedure
For someone to be appointed town secretary, there has to be written approval from the Local Government Board. But in a surprising turn of events, even as the board had written to Gokwe Town Council asking the council to put the appointment of a town secretary on hold, the chairperson of the town council, Esther Senga, was writing to Mandeya to confirm her employment, advising her that she was supposed to start work on December 1 2014.
December Salary Dispute
When it was pointed out that this appointment was unprocedural and void since there was no written confirmation from the Local Government Board, a flurry of paperwork ensued, which saw Mandeya taking up office on January 5 2015. “As soon as she got into office, she demanded her December salary and allowances, arguing that she had been appointed into office from December 1,” explained one of our sources.
The internal auditor refused to process the salary payment, arguing that it would be fraudulent to do so as the town secretary did not have the requisite paperwork to support her December 1 appointment. Nonetheless, the town secretary prevailed, and the salary stand-off was to be the genesis of long-standing argument between the two – town secretary and internal auditor – mostly over procedure and protocol.
Extravagant Lifestyle
Arriving from Chegutu town council, Mandeya refused to occupy the house that was used by the previous town secretary, arguing “that there is a tree that affects my breathing”. She checked into Gokwe Hotel instead, staying there for three months. Because the council had a long lease with the owner of the property that was used by the previous town secretary, it was left with no option but to continue paying the rentals for the house, yet it was not occupied. This was over and above the hotel bills.
“Another clash between the internal auditor and town secretary came when the former refused to process food bills coming from the hotel as the council was only obliged to provide her with accommodation and not food,” said our source.
When a house was later found that suited Mandeya’s taste, she moved into it, but council continued to pay for two houses. It was later resolved to sub-let the other house to offset its renting costs.
Travel and Subsistence

1.The fire tender controversially bought for US$22 000.

1.The fire tender controversially bought for US$22 000.

In 2012, the Ministry of Local Government and Urban and Rural Development appointed a four-member Rapid Intervention Team, headed by Erica Jones to “put in place measures that would facilitate the current state of Gokwe Town Council to restore sanity” to the local authority. One of the recommendations by the team was that travel and subsistence allowances that were being paid to council staff was too high with respect to the size of the council and its revenue inflow.
A recommendation, followed by a Ministerial directive, was issued to the council to scale down the allowances to $100 per day overall. However, a council resolution 808 /2015 overturned the allowances, with those in grades 11 to 13 now pocketing $260 per day, which is more than double the previous allowances.
These absurd allowances, residents and councillors argue, are enticing senior management to travel round the clock, spending less time and effort towards service delivery. Incidentally, when The Sunday Mail visited Gokwe Government Complex on Monday afternoon, Mandeya was not in office. When she was reached for comment, she said she was out of town and would only be back in Gokwe after a week.
The result is that Gokwe Town Council sits on a bill in excess of $100 000 every financial year, to cover travel and subsistence allowances.
Magaya Night of Turn Around
The extravagant nature of spending at Gokwe Town Council is that even though councillors received personal invitations to attend Prophet Walter Magaya’s Night of Turn-around last November, the town council had to pay them travel and subsistence allowances for them to attend. “This shows that some of our councillors are now compromised,” said a member of the Gokwe business community, who requested not to be named. “If council can pay travel and subsistence allowances to councillors to attend such an event, that shows the councillors are compromised when it comes to crucial resolutions within council,” added the businessman.
Labour Issues
Presently Gokwe Town Council is sitting on several labour cases, most of which the employees were fired without following due procedure and processes. Expectedly, most of these cases are playing out in labour courts, such that on average, Gokwe Town Council spends about $60 000 per year in legal fees. This is outside the compensation that it has to pay to its workers, in the event that it loses some of the cases.
Residents are peeved by the manner with which the town council handled the issue the Mafa & Others vs Gokwe Town Council case. Seeking greener pastures, the trio resigned from Gokwe Council. However, things did not turn up as expected. They re-applied for admission to council but their applications were turned down since their leaving work was voluntary.
The trio took their case to Labour Court where they won the case. Council appealed to the Supreme Court, where legal opinion was that council would win the case. In the meantime, Mafa had stood in the local government elections as a councillor and won, becoming council vice chair in the process.
He then persuaded council, given his new status as vice chair, to abandon the Supreme Court appeal and settle out-of-court with the trio. Besides reaching an out-of-court settlement, the council ended up paying legal fees for the trio as well. It is needless to say that he was a beneficiary of abandoning the appeal.
Graduate Trainees
Council workers who were doing things by the book, seeking either procedure or protocol have been fired and in their place graduate trainees have been assigned their duties. The internal auditor and council accountant were “fired” on three months’ notice, for refusing some undue payments.
The graduate trainees are now running the operations of council, without supervision or mentoring, with the support of clerical staff.
“The issue with graduate trainees,” said a close observer of the affairs at the town council, “is that they are not permanent staff and even their salaries are being drawn illegally as they are not on the council’s organogram. What is worse, they are gaining experience at the council’s expense and if they are to get full employment elsewhere, they easily leave with their experience, leaving council in a lurch.”
In the lower ranks, general hands, with a casual count giving 21, were also fired. The result is that council has engaged some residents on a food-for-work programme, paying them $20 per week. “Whilst one might get the sense that council is saving on its salary bill by engaging these casual workers, the money being saved is being extravagantly used elsewhere,” noted a resident. “But the sad part is that the hired casual employees do their work without any protective clothing, like garbage collection or attending to sewer,” added the resident.
Salary Arrears
Gokwe Town Council workers have gone for four months without pay, that is from September last year. As if that was not enough, the council went on to acquire a fire tender at a cost of $22 000 to council, which residents, the business community and councillors argue was not a priority, as the council’s other fire tender had been fully refurbished. Besides, the acquired fire tender does not meet “the full description of a fire tender,” the residents argue.
As if the acquisition of the fire tender did not raise tempers and suspicion enough, they went on to acquire a Mazda BT50 for $68 000. The price tag must be jaw-dropping because on its website, Willowvale Madza Motor Industries advertises the BT50 for $29 000 (the old series). The flagship CX9 is selling for $59 990, with residents querying what kind of mark-up, or adds-on, could have given a variance of over $30 000.
Foton Truck

2. The accident-damaged Foton truck.

2. The accident-damaged Foton truck.

The Foton truck, which was assigned to the finance director, was last seen at the council premises in September and when the issue of the whereabouts of the vehicle was raised in a council meeting, no explanation was given. The truck was about six months old when it disappeared.
In contravention of the council’s transport policy, no police report nor report to council was given. In a veiled admission that something could be amiss with the vehicle’s whereabouts, the district administrator for Gokwe said when he asked “council” of the vehicle’s whereabouts, he was advised that a report will be forwarded in due course to him after the insurers had compiled theirs.
The Sunday Mail managed to obtain pictures of the Foton truck, which was allegedly involved in an accident, presumably being driven by a non-council employee, hence the absence of a police report nor one to council.
Audit Committee
Gokwe Town Council is contravening Section 97 of the Urban Council Act (Chapter 29:15) by operating for at least six months now without an audit committee.
Both the internal auditor and accountant have since been relieved of their duties, for querying some payments, like the continued payment of graduate trainees when they are not provided for in council’s budget and organogram, or the unapproved gross salary being paid to the town secretary.
Financial Delinquencies
Ever since Gokwe Town Council paid for, and did not receive the Nissan NP300, it has been dogged by several financial inadequacies. For instance, money which is supposed to be banked at the end of every working day had to stay in a safe over one weekend. And on the weekend that the money stayed, the safe was blown away by thieves and $7 000 stolen. No-one has been captured nor anything recovered.
The financial mismanagement is such that council has applied for loans with a named bank without applying to central government for borrowing powers. When councils want to borrow certain amounts of money from commercial banks, standing procedure is that they apply to central government and then advertise in public media such intentions, so that those with reservations can raise them. Gokwe council never went through this process.
Flouting of Tender Procedures
Even though council went on to acquire the disputed fire tender without going to tender, “as it was a directive from the Minister to acquire it”, councillors contend that a number of services and products are being acquired without going to tender. For instance, a local businessman has been hired to ferry gravel for council, in exchange for commercial stands, without going to tender. The costs of the work, in normal circumstances, should be paid for by dividends from the Zimbabwe National Road Authority grants to local authorities.
Mandeya’s Response
I don’t have time for negative energy. I am trying my best to transform Gokwe from being a rural set-up to an urban one and what I expect is support. And if it means I will have to work with the few that support my vision for Gokwe so shall it be. There are many positives that we are doing in Gokwe and I am told our administrator took you around to see what we are doing. As for these allegations I don’t have time to answer them one by one but I will let my work speak for myself.
Edwin Mashindi (Gokwe District Administrator)
There are people who have always been against the appointment of Mrs Mandeya from the word go and these are the people who are always raising these allegations. But if you look around Gokwe you will notice that there has been noticeable change and the woman should be commended for what she is doing. Everything that is being done by the council is above board and is usually backed by council resolutions.
It is not a secret that the Residents’ Association and the town secretary do not see eye-to-eye, and that councillors initially did not approve her appointment. So these squabbles are not that surprising.

Share This:

Survey


We value your opinion! Take a moment to complete our survey

This will close in 20 seconds