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City of Harare budget consultations begin
Combined Harare Residents Association (CHRA)
August 31, 2012

Harare city council will next week begin their 2013 budget consultations in all the wards of Harare. This is a process by which the Finance Committee and CoH councilors go to their respective wards and consult residents on the services being provided by council vis-à-vis the rates being charged. Participatory budgeting is a process by which residents get to be involved in a process which seeks to determine service delivery priorities and costs.

What is a budget?

A budget is a plan converted into quantitative terms or a summary statement of plans expressed in quantitative terms. It is a tool used by the local authority in setting financial or operational goals towards the attainment of strategic goals. There are two broad categories of the budget, that is the operating /revenue budget and the capital budget. Operational budgets deal with the day to day business of City of Harare and the Capital budget deal with the longer-term operations of the business and usually cover any investment, which will have a return over more than the one budget period.

The participatory budgeting process

Participatory budgeting is not specifically captured in the Urban Councils Act [Chapter 29:13] but is a universally acceptable principle of public financial administration. The following process takes place in Council before a budget becomes operation for the following financial year.

1. Preparation of availability of funds report indicating the anticipated sources, allocation to spending departments and impact on the revenue budget

2. Approval by Finance committee

3. Circulation to user departments

4. Preparation of Appendix A-over's and under's

5. Appendix B - Carry forwards from current year to budget year

6. Appendix C - Ensuing year estimates

7. Preparation of reports to committees

8. Detailed report for Finance committee

9. Scrutiny; amendments and recommendations by finance committee to full Council for adoption

10. Road shows and public consultations on proposed tariffs and developmental projects, then to full council

11. After adoption, the proposed tariffs are advertised

12. Consideration of borrowing power report and advertising thereafter

13. Consideration of objections if any (in excess of 30)

14. Submission to Ministry for scrutiny and approval

15. Forwarding to AG (by Ministry of Local Government) for gazetting those charges that relate to incorporated Government areas

CHRA position on 2013 budget

The Association has written to the Mayor and City treasurer requesting a detailed report of the actual funds collected, allocated (to departments) and the total expenditure record. This has been necessitated by the fact that each year residents have gone for budget meetings without knowledge of previous expenditure which should be the bedrock in shaping discourse on the ensuing year's expenditure.

Develop priority areas

CoH should be in a position to come up with a framework for residents to contribute their priority areas in terms of service delivery. Consultations should not be done in a manner that is bent on determining rates only but customized such that residents can clearly attribute which services they want to be prioritized by Council.

Evaluation of the budget performance for 2012

CoH should produce a detailed report of the total revenue collected and areas of allocation. This evaluation should specify the total estimated revenue which was anticipated for the year 2012 vis-à-vis the actual revenue collected. This in turn should then speak to the performance of the budget which can be the basis of measuring the efficiency of Harare City Council.

Presentation of the Strategic Plan and its link with the current budget

This year City of Harare directors prepared a document which was to act as the local authority's strategic plan. The document was presented and approved by the Minister of Local Government. In that respect it is imperative that the City re-align the strategic plan together with the priorities raised by the residents and come up with one document which is reflective of what the people want done in their communities in order to improve service delivery.

Financial statements

It has become organizational culture for CoH not to produce finance statements on income and expenditure. City of Harare should produce annual financial statements which can allow watchdogs and ratepayers to scrutinize how their funds are being used.

Proposed revenue generation framework

Harare City Council has largely been relying on revenue collected from residents. It is essential that the City comes up with a detailed strategy of making sure that it offloads the burden from residents of financing service delivery. This comes at a time when most of the revenue which is supposed to be going to council is being collected by Chipangano. The City has got to convince residents that it is going to address this issue before demanding huge payments from ratepayers.

Visit the CHRA fact sheet

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