By Correspondent
Harare City Council’s 2024 budget proposal has been declined by Central Government over a range of old issues.
Foremost is the absence of plans to find a new Enterprise Resource Planning System (ERP).
Since the withdrawal of Quill Associates’ BIQ billing system in 2019, Council’s billing has been shambolic.
The local authority has battling with an alternative system that saw it failing to produce monthly bills on time.
The Ministry noted that in the 2024 budget there are no arrangements for a solution to the matter.
“Harare City Council does not have functional computer based organisational systems and this has contributed greatly to low revenue collection.
“The Parliament of Zimbabwe and Auditor General recommendations to re-instate the previous ERP have not been complied with.
“Council has continuously failed to procure an ERP for the past 5 years,” it said.
This has contributed to low revenue collection and consequently poor service delivery.
Audit Issues
Harare is also accused of failing to provide solutions in the budget to address recurring audit disclaimers.
Council is behind in audits.
Financial Statements for 2017, 2018 and 2019 received disclaimers of opinion by the External Auditor, a firm of Chartered Accountants.
The disclaimer of opinion means the External Auditor did not obtain sufficient evidence to provide a basis for an audit opinion.
Again, in the 2024 budget, Harare did not present any meaningful steps to address the matter.
Also cited as reasons for declining the budget are huge debts, abuse of estate funds, corporate governance issues and overstaffing.
Council’s failure to provide a response to the recurrent water challenges was also cited as a reason to decline the budget.