TellZim reporter
Masvingo City Council is yet to receive the bigger chunk of its 2022 financial year devolution funds with the local authority having received a paltry ZW$ 50 million from the approved ZW$ 253 million.
The revelation came during a full council meeting held at the Civic centre on August 4 where Acting Finance Director Danister Jori confirmed having received the little amount since January this year.
“The total allocation for 2022 is ZW$ 253m but so far we have received ZW$ 50. We have had meetings with officials from the Ministry of Local government and the Treasury on how best we can access our funds so that we continue with the projects.
“From the meetings, we were given assurance by ministry of local government that we would receive the bigger chunk of the funding that is ZW$ 120m,” said Jori.
However, Mayor Collen Maboke expressed concern over the delays in the disbursement of the funding saying by the time the money is made available it would have been eroded by inflation.
“We would like to know how much council had been allocated in total devolution funds for 2022. Unfortunately due to late disbursements, the allocation would be valueless the time it reaches council coffers because of inflation,” said Maboke.
He also quizzed the logic behind the ministry promising the release of ZW$ 120m when council owes Mucheke Trunk Sewer contractor ZW$ 123m.
“During this meeting, I heard the contractor on MTC is owed ZW$ 123 and what is the logic behind releasing a lower amount and that literally mean that all the money would be for the contractor at the expense of other projects,” he argued.
Continued delays in releasing of devolution funds have also seen progress on major projects like the Cambria Farm land fill come to a halt.
Town Clerk Engineer Edward Mukaratirwa confirmed that.
“Unfortunately we have not yet received our devolution funds but we have been trying to continue operations using the few resources available. We have made efforts to work with the Ministry of Finance on how best we can be able to access the funds.
“Right now one can see that work has/is being done on the ground,” he said.
Most local authorities around Zimbabwe have been experiencing challenges to access devolution funds as the Treasury takes ages to release the money to such an extent that when the funds are made available, they would have lost value.
In some cases, some projects have been negatively affected by weather patterns especially projects like roads constructions and even sewerage drains laying.
