City needs more than $260m Water chemicals swallow lion’s share of budget

Members of the local authority have reportedly given overwhelming approval to the supplementary budget. Councillors believe the budget will fill a significant number of gaps. While critics say this points to profligate spending by the council, the city fathers insist the previous budget did not meet their obligations to Harare citizens in a sound, fiscally responsible manner.

If approved, the supplementary budget would balloon the council's already controversial 2011 $260million annual budget. The supplementary budget would effectively mean that there would be a swingeing increase for all services provided by the city council. The move is likely to be resisted by already overburdened ratepayers.

Highly placed sources at Town House said the need for a supplementary budget was inevitable as the economic situation continued to deteriorate.

"Our budget of $260million has been completely eroded," a councillor who sits on the finance committee said this week. "The biggest portion of our

budget presented last year has been swallowed by water chemicals."

The budget comes at a time when consumers are complaining about poor service delivery by the council and unacceptably high rates and levies.

Current revenues from rates and services have been earmarked for capital expenditure and maintenance of roads, hospitals, and other infrastructure. Government no longer provides annual subventions to councils and has refused to grant borrowing powers.

Harare mayor Muchadeyi Masunda, could neither confirm or deny that a provisional supplementary budget had already been drawn up. But our source said: "We have already prepared a tentative provisional supplementary budget for stakeholders' consideration in the consultative meetings that will begin soon."

"We would like to have the supplementary budget implemented when we effect our second-year increases in July," he said.

He said the earlier the budget is implemented the quicker the council would improve its services to ratepayers. He said council was not expecting resistance from ratepayers as they would be consulted before finalisation of the working figures.

The Combined Harare Residents Association said council should consider alternatives to raising the money other than passing on the burden to the already choked ratepayers. It urged council to borrow from the money market.