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Innocent Ruwende Municipal Reporter
Weaknesses in the administration of commercial property leases and the shortage of manpower in the Estates Management Division have prejudiced MDC-T-run Harare City Council of close to $30 million in potential revenue, an internal audit has revealed.

The audit showed that inadequate enforcement of lease agreements and collection of rentals was responsible for accumulated lease rental arrears of $29 757 175, 37.

Presenting the report to the Audit Committee, audit manager Mr Joseph Issa reported that the audit had revealed a number of weaknesses in the administration of commercial properties in Harare.

“Other weaknesses included inter alia uncooperative cellular network communication operators who owed over $7 million in outstanding way leave lease as at the time of the audit, expired leases, lease properties not being billed, missing lease agreement files and absence of a register for tracking movement of documents from the valuation section to the rents and fees section,” he said.

Acting town clerk Mrs Josephine Ncube advised that the Estates Management Division did not have the capacity to administer the lease of commercial properties in the city.

She reminded the committee that the proposal to commercialise the administration of leases of commercial properties had not yet been approved by council.

She emphasised the need to separate officials who signed lease agreements and those who collected lease rentals.

Finance director Mr Tendai Kwenda pointed out that outsourcing lease administration had traction and lessees would be inclined to abide with lease agreements as defaulting would have legal implications.

He said that the recommendation was a result of the section’s failure to cope with leases management tasks especially revenue collection as it was not equipped with the lease administration software.

Mr Kwenda said the section had a severely depleted mobility and human capital resources as well as lack of legal structure to attend to litigation matters timeously.

The committee discussed the matter further noting that the city was owed a lot of money in outstanding lease rentals which could meet monthly employees’ salaries.

It further pointed out that the decentralisation of service delivery would enable district officers to establish lessees in default and to collect lease rentals.

The committee also urged lease rentals to enter into payment plan with City of Harare and that staff be redeployed from areas of excess staff in council service to address the staff shortage in the Estates Management Division.