The chairperson of the taskforce who is also the Deputy Minister of Local Government, Rural and Urban Development, Sesel Zvidzai, said there were some councils that had not forwarded their salary structures despite being requested to do so.
However, he said they were not going to be moved in their endeavour to bring sanity within the Local authorities and will continue with their investigations.
There are some councils that are trying to delay this investigation by not submitting their salary schedules but we are not worried at all because as the parent Ministry we will at the end of day get our hands on their schedules whether they like it or not, said Zvidzai.
The Ministry of Local Government, Rural and Urban Development last week announced that it was setting up a taskforce to investigate all local authorities salary structures and ensure that they adhere to the 70 is to 30 percent ratio as in service delivery to officials salaries.
The Ministry had noted with concern that they were some authorities that were not sticking to the 70 to 30 percent ratio thus the necessity to set up the task force.
Our goal at the end of the day is to ensure that the bulk of ratepayers money is directed to service delivery not to councillors
and council officials luxuries, said the Deputy Minister.
Bulawayo United Residents Association (BURA) chairperson Winos Dube said it was time for the government to reaffirm their position as the parent Ministry to all local authorities.
As BURA we really appreciate this initiative as we have on countless number of occasions questioned the salaries issued to council officials vis–vis service delivery as in most cases the salaries do not tally with service delivery, said Dube.
He said residents struggled to pay their rates but these were not being used for the necessary services but were being directed to their salaries and allowances.
Post published in: News