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Innocent Ruwende Senior Reporter
GOVERNMENT has acceded to a request by local authorities to reclassify labour costs as part of service delivery in council budgets. Most councils are struggling to meet the 70:30 ratio for service delivery to employment costs, respectively, as 50 percent of their expenditure is earmarked for salaries.

Presenting Harare City Council’s 2018 budget, chairperson of the finance and development committee councillor Luckson Mukunguma said local authorities were happy with Government’s favourable decision.

“The Ministry acceded to requests by local authorities to exclude salaries payable to staff in service delivery operations from the 30 percent employment costs computation matrix, but rather to include the same as service delivery-related expenditure ratio in the 2017 budget,” he said.

“It is indeed an acknowledgement by authorities that the greater part of salaries goes towards service delivery. Local authorities throughout the country celebrate the landmark recognition by Government that the greater part of salaries supports service delivery initiatives.” Harare Municipal Workers’ Union (HMWU) executive chairperson Mr Cosmas Bungu has been pushing for salaries to be considered as part of service delivery, saying it was offensive to say that employees were not part and parcel of service delivery.

“If the workers are not happy, then how is the city going to have clean streets, well-built roads? Without happy workers or workers, there ceases to be service delivery. HMWU, as social partners, are of the qualified view that labour costs are part of service delivery and that there is no way that we can separate the two” he said. Harare presented a $328 million budget, down from $465 million for 2017. Clr Mukunguma said the budget had been downwardly reviewed as a response to the poor performance of the 2017 budget, which did not get the expected support from financial institutions.