HARARE City Council, which is struggling to provide effective and efficient services, is owed over ZiG8 billion (around US$25 million using the official exchange rate), by ratepayers with the government being the largest debtor, NewsDay has established.
The city fathers have since warned the debtors, adding that businesses face closure or loss of property through court orders.
The development was revealed during debate on a Debtor’s Age Analysis Report emanating from an operation dubbed “CBD Order Restoration”, targeting mainly businesses operating without licences, illegally partitioned buildings as well as those which are not paying water bills.
The operation has seen more than 2 000 shops being closed since it was launched almost two months ago.
Council acting head of revenue collection Alfred Guni in an update meeting on the CBD operation on rented accommodation and regularisation of dysfunctional settlements programme in Harare said council was owed in excess of ZiG8 billion by ratepayers.
“The bulk of the debt comes from residential property owners, who owe the city ZiG5 billion, followed by the commercial sector with ZiG1,09 billion and industry at ZiG1,05 billion,” he said.
“Other significant arrears and debts include government owing ZiG167 million, Zesa (ZiG455m), dormitory towns (ZiG345m) while parastatals owe the city ZiG64m with sundry at ZiG31 million.
“Additionally, municipal property tenants owe ZiG58 million.”
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Guni called on ratepayers to pay their debts to avoid loss of property as the city is planning to take legal action.
“The city is urging its stakeholders to urgently clear their debts, warning that continued non-payment threatens service delivery and the city’s operational efficiency,” he said.
“The city is taking stern measures to recover the debt and urges ratepayers to settle as soon as possible to avoid inconveniences of business closure and residents losing their property through court orders.”
Harare Residents Trust director Precious Shumba said the bigger problem was City of Harare’s billing system issues, which were causing residents to pay inflated bills.
“The City of Harare is in no position to expect residents to pay the inflated amounts that they are playing around with,” Shumba said.
“If we take the water consumption figure alone, it is evident that the absence of a functional, transparent and accountable enterprise resource planning system, commonly known as the billing system, is the difference between collection efficiency and non-payment of bills by some residents.”
Shumba said council should prioritise a new billing system to ensure accuracy and transparency.
“The Harare Residents Trust urges the City of Harare to prioritise procurement of a new billing system to ensure accurate billing of residents for water consumption, property tax, refuse collection and sewerage,” he said.
“Currently, residents are paying their bills in US dollars, but council cashiers are involved in fraudulent activities converting US dollar payments to ZiG currency purporting to be through bank cards, despite residents mostly paying in US dollar cash (sic).
“The lack of a billing system has become a milking venture for most council workers in the finance department. There is no accurate recording of revenues and expenditures. Therefore, the Harare Residents Trust denounces the holier than thou attitude being displayed by the corrupt and inefficient officials in the City of Harare.”
Shumba indicated that council workers were involved in fraudulent activities and corruption, and called for robust intervention, including the appointment of a substantive director in the finance department.
“The situation calls for robust intervention,” he said. “Firstly, the finance department should be led by a substantive director, not Mr Godfrey Kusangaya, the retired elder being imposed on the department by corrupt councillors in order to perpetuate their culture of looting council funds through unlawful premature full payment to contractors, who do not timeously deliver the goods and services to the City of Harare.
“The City of Harare is losing millions of dollars to deceptive service providers, who receive full payment without delivering services or goods to council.
“Residents reject the claim that they owe so much to council.
“An accurate billing system is the priority solution to address financial leakages.”
