Back to Index

CHRA, City of Harare, map the way forward on 2010 budget consultations
Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA)
October 30, 2009

The Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA) met the City of Harare's Finance Committee on Thursday 29 October 2009 at Town House. The meeting was a follow-up to the submissions by CHRA on the 2010 budget formulation process. The meeting was attended by members of the CHRA political leadership, Secretariat as well as the officials from the City's Finance Department.

Key among the issues that were discussed was the CHRA opinion on the budget consultations. The following resolutions were made;

• The City of Harare will draw up the schedule for the consultation meetings to be conducted in the different wards of Harare and the schedule will be made available to CHRA.
• CHRA will submit the contact details of all its ward leaders to the City of Harare so that Councilors can get in touch with these leaders in the wards for purposes of working together to mobilize residents to participate in the consultations.
• CHRA and the City's Finance Committee will meet regularly during the course of the consultations to assess progress as well as to ensure that the consultations are as wide as possible.
• CHRA will receive the draft budget produced after the consultations to assess whether it reflects the views of the ratepayers. Another meeting will then be conducted with the Finance Committee to discuss any queries that would have been raised.
• It was also agreed that the consultations should be done in time so that the City of Harare will have ample time to give residents the mandatory 30 day period (as stipulated in the Urban Councils' Act) for residents to lodge their objections (or comments) before the final draft is submitted to the Minister of Local Government for approval.

Meanwhile, the City of Harare has prepared a draft Capital budget pending submissions from other Departments in Council. CHRA has already viewed the draft budget and made some comments as well as seek clarifications from the Finance Committee. Consultations with residents and stakeholders are expected to begin in November. CHRA urges all its ward leaders to be in constant touch with their Councilors so as to get more information on dates of the consultation meetings. Residents who would like to give their comments and contributions to the above-mentioned resolutions on the consultation process can contact us on the email and phone numbers indicated above.

CHRA remains committed to advocating for good, transparent and accountable local governance.

Visit the CHRA fact sheet

Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.

TOP