By Correspondent
In 2023 and 2024 Bulawayo City Council retained basically the same budget from 2022 in a move celebrated by some.
The initiative was supposedly meant to ease burdens for ratepayers.
The 2023 budget was US$244 056 873 with a slight adjustment for the 2024 budget which set it at US$264 064 416.
Presenting the 2024 budget BCC Finance Manager Accounting Services Isaac Matare said they took into consideration economic hardships.
“If we had to do everything, this budget could have been seating on $400 million if we had to do the aspirations of the city.
“Our budget as we originally planned it, it was seating around $372 million.
“But that would have translated into an increase of tariffs in the regions around 20-23 percent increase in tariffs,” he said.
Fake Financial Moves
The move sounded too good to be true.
Indeed it wasn’t true as facts have since shown after Government blocked the passing of BCC’s 2025 budget.
The Local Authority is accused of using an incorrect formula to index tariffs for 2022 and 2023 in US dollars.
This resulted in exorbitant charges for both residents and the business community.
That meant the supposedly static budgets between 2022 and 2024 were already exorbitant!
They was no room to change tariffs that were already too much.
However, the trick was picked by the Confederation of Zimbabwean Industries (CZI) Matebeleland Chapter.
According to CZI, council’s decision to keep the 2022 budget static in 2023 and 2024 was a façade to conceal these miscalculations.
It wrote to Council seeking redressal over the matter.
However, the two failed to reach a consensus until Government intervened.
Blocked 2025 Budget
In a letter to John Basera, Perm Secretary in the Ministry of Local Government, Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet, Martin Rushwaya, emphasised the need to resolve these issues before progressing with the 2025 budget.
“I draw your attention to the above-captioned subject matter presented to your esteemed offices in a letter dated October 11, 2024 by Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries, Matabeleland Chamber vice-president, Clive Oxden Willows.
“I find the matters they raise to be quite valuable and deserving of engagement by the City of Bulawayo,” read the letter.
In a massive win for ratepayers BCC has since been forced to revise its proposed US$309 million budget for 2025.
New Budget In January
The Council has resolved to base the revised budget on 2017 tariffs.
Acting Town Clerk, Mrs Sikhangele Zhou, acknowledged the concerns by ratepayers.
She stated that the new budget would incorporate inflation-adjusted increases from 2017 to 2025.
“What the business community is saying is that when we changed in 2022 we used a factor which gave higher rates.
“Yet, if we had just used inflation figures on the USD tariffs, we would probably have come up with different figures.
“What the council is saying is that even without those figures, the prices of goods have affected the tariff increases.
“So the committee ought to see what is reasonable and strike a win-win situation,” she said.
The final BCC 2025 budget will now be presented in January.
It will be based on financial facts not estimates according to officials.
