FINANCE minister Patrick Chinamasa yesterday said government had learnt
from its past mistakes and would not order another debt write-off on
local authorities as the majority were failing to recover from a similar
directive issued in the run-up to the 2013 harmonised elections.
Chinamasa told delegates at the ongoing Urban Councils
Association of Zimbabwe’s business conference in Harare that the 2013 debt
waiver caused financial loss of more than $500 million to local authorities,
which some councils have not recovered from.
“The Ministry of Local Government has already submitted to
us as Treasury a list of local authorities that incurred losses due to the
cancellation of the outstanding bills. Let me say that that will never happen
again,” Chinamasa said.
“Can you believe it that the amount of losses that we
incurred through that cancellation is half a billion, so where are we going to
get that money? It puts a big hole into your finances, so that we acknowledge.
The matter is currently under consideration and we remain very positive that we
will find practical ways to assist the affected local authorities.”
Chinamasa said the debt cancellation had affected
investment in municipalities.
“Most of our local authorities are insolvent, that should
be corrected, no investor or country can solve it. When you move around the
cities, you observe massive housing development, but there is no corresponding
industrial development. What that means is that we are heading for some social
problems in the future.”
Chinamasa rapped top officials who awarded themselves hefty
salaries at a time their councils were struggling to stay afloat.
“You must appoint appropriate people and qualified people
to run your finances. Thirty percent of revenue should go towards employment
and 70% towards service delivery and if it is the other way round, you will
never get things right.
Vice-President Phelekezela Mphoko opened the conference
urging the private sector to partner councils in promoting infrastructure
development. newsday
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