By Correspondent
Government is failing to shake-of its anxiety over decentralized power as the Devolution Law remains pending.
Various opposition and ZANU PF members have raised issue with this vacuum.
Mutare Central MP Muchi Chanyangana has raised the issue in Parliament.
“Since 2018, we have been asking when the Devolution Bill is going to be presented in Parliament.
Political analyst, Effie Ncube has said that people must recognise that there is no law defining duties for Provincial Councils.
“The so-called devolution law was supposed to be in place as early as 2013,” Ncube said.
“Now, ten years later, there is no law that outlines really how the provincial councils are going to work.
Former Legislator Tendai Biti, famously clashed with former Local Government Minister, July Moyo, on the continued disbursement of devolution funds in local councils without any legislation in place.
Gangster Government
However, Central Gvt remains obstinate against the effectualisation of this Bill.
This has allowed the relevant Ministry of Local Government to operate arbitrarily in disbursement of Devolution funds.
In 2023 the Ministry disbursed $11,8 billion to local authorities for capital projects.
This was against the 2023 National Budget allocation of $52,5 billion.
Another $5,3 billion was disbursed for the procurement of fire tenders under the Belarus-Zimbabwe Cooperation.
This was against the essence of devolution which seeks for the involved Councils to make own decisions on usage of funds.
Murky Business
The absence of relevant law has also created loopholes for corruption in the usage of devolution funds.
In October 2023 the Auditor General’s (AG) report revealed that most local authorities have nothing to report on for the last three years.
Section 301(3) of the Constitution states that 10% will go towards administration while 90% should go towards construction and infrastructure projects.
These are supposed to spur growth in regional economies.
However the AG revealed that between 2019 and 2021 some Councils have no records of how the money was used.
“Such information was not available as the Public Works and Local Government Ministry did not have a database.
“Audit noted that of the 27 projects that City Council of Harare (CCH) and Ruwa Local Board (RLB) had planned to implement, only 5 projects were completed,” the report said.
Some Local Authorities were not preparing separate books of accounts for devolution as required by Local Authorities Circular No1 of 2019.
As a result, some failed to account for the disbursed devolution funds.
For example, CCH could not account for devolution funds amounting to $32,6 million.
As Government continues to dither on the relevant laws it’s clear that whatever money is disbursed will be abused.
The idea behind devolution cannot find an effective footing unless all the applicable boxes are ticked.
