The ManicaPost
Tendai Gukutikwa Post Correspondent
MUTARE City Council is currently operating with a 37:63 employment costs to total expenditure ratio, an improvement from the year ending December 31, 2013’s 70:30 ratio, acting Town Clerk, Engineer Donaldson Nyatoti has said.
Eng Nyatoti said the current ratio was by far an improvement and that the council was working tirelessly to comply with the Government required 30:70 employment costs to total expenditure ratio.
He made the remarks at the on-going capacity building workshop for Parliament of Zimbabwe’s Public Accounts Committee on the analysis of audited accounts for parastatals and meeting with local authorities in Manicaland at a local hotel on Wednesday.
Eng Nyatoti said this after, the committee which was being chaired by Mr Tose Sansole had asked him that if they appreciated the Ministry’s policy of employment costs to total expenditure and if so, why did they circumvented the required 30:70 ratio by misrepresenting in the budget they presented to the Ministry then.
The City Council was failing to comply with the required 30:70 employment costs to total expenditure ratio in 2013.
“An amount of $4 959 829 meant for employment costs in the council’s 2013 annual budget was included under the heading ‘Repairs and maintenance’ in order to meet the required ratio for budget approval purposes.
“After budget approval, this amount was later redirected and expensed as employment costs.
“Auditor General recommended that the council should seek approval for virement of the $4 959 829 that was approved for repairs and maintenance but used for employment costs,” said Mr Sansole.
In his response, Eng Nyatoti said the main problem had been that they depended solely on manual labour from council employees and had it been that they had adequate machinery to depend on, the required ratio would have been met long back.
“We depend on manual labour where employees fill in potholes without the proper vehicles and machinery. Had it been that we had the necessary machinery, we surely would have not have circumvented the requirement,” he justified the council’s move.
He further stated that the council was facing a lot of challenges as many ratepayers were defaulting, leaving them with no option but to seek the assistance of debt collectors.
Updating the PAC on the progress of fault water meters, Mutare City Council acting finance director, Ms Tsitsi Useya, said the situation had improved from 2013 as most of them had been replaced.
A total of 7 575 water meters were non-functional by year end 2013 and billing was based on estimates with some water properties being levied fixed charges from water consumption.
The Auditor General recommended that the council should replace faulty meters as this would enable the billing of actual consumption.
“We encouraged our ratepayers to replace water meters and we have only a few faulty ones left. It is, however, our wish to replace all of them as we are currently bargaining for pre-paid meters,” she said.
The six-day workshop will see Mutare City, Mutare Rural, Nyanga Rural and Mutasa Rural district councils being grilled on how they are managing their councils financially from the parliamentarians.
