The Sunday Mail
Online Reporter
GOVERNMENT has warned local authorities against engaging debt collectors to recover what they are owed by ratepayers as this is illegal.
Parliament yesterday sought clarification after revelations some local authorities are enlisting the services of debt collectors notwithstanding a 2010 Government directive prohibiting attachment of private property by local authorities over non-payment of rates.
Local Government and Public Works Deputy Minister Marian Chombo said Local Government Circular 3 of 2010 still stands.
“There has not been any other circular to supersede this one – so, it is still in effect,” she told parliamentarians.
“We are bound by the Constitution; we have to provide things like water and so forth. You really cannot go out or cut the livelihood of the common person. So, there should be other means for them to be able to collect rather than engaging debt collectors, who are going to charge even more.”
The involvement of debt collectors, she said, sometimes often has unintended consequences for local authorities.
Local authorities have been struggling to collect revenues for years.
Harare City Council, for example, is owed $17 billion in unpaid rates.
