The Bulawayo City Council (BCC)’s coffers have started improving, amid disclosures that the debtors’ bill had significantly gone down from over $80 million at the beginning of March, to $69 million by the end of the same month.
Officials have attributed the positive development to the payment arrangement system introduced by the local authority.
According to the council’s latest report, by the end of March this year, the entire debt owed to the city council by government departments, industry, commercial and domestic debtors had dropped to $69 762 704,16 from $80 112 093,09 at the beginning of the same month.
In the report, the local authority indicated it was still working on the figures for April.
As a result, council managed to reduce its debt to creditors to $62 740 896,69 from $64 645 160,67. In an interview with NewsDay yesterday, mayor Thaba Moyo said it was encouraging that the local authority’s efforts had paid off.
“We have actually intensified collections,” he said. “However, what is more important is that we urged them (debtors) to make payment arrangements. The payment arrangements are working well. We want dialogue with the debtors so that we have arrangements and there is no accumulation of the debt.”
The government, according to the report, managed to reduce its debt to $3 831 191,56 from $3 924 261,92. Industrial and commercial debtors reduced their debt to $25 655 197,18 from $28 603 974,09.
Domestic debtors, who owe the largest amount, reduced theirs to $40 276 315,42 from $47 583 857,08.
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The local authority also managed to pay power utility Zesa $100000 and further serviced its debt with financial institutions, coughing out $702 696,31.
Salaries gobbled $4 035 024,51, but the local authority still owes its workers $4 671 771,30.
