Cletus Mushanawani Mash Central Bureau
About 40 developmental projects worth millions of dollars have been initiated in Mashonaland Central Province since the launch of the 100-Days performance appraisals by the Second Republic on January 2, 2018.
The projects are based on five national priority areas of the Transitional Stabilisation Programme and these include Inclusive Economic Growth, Macroeconomic Stability, Financial Re-engagement, Social Development and Cross Cutting Enablers.
In an interview, acting provincial development co-ordinator Mr Cosmas Chiringa said the average completion rate of the projects was 87,7 percent.
“In the first 100-Days that commenced on January 2, 2018 and ended on April 10, 2018, each local authority embarked on four projects that were monitored through an Executive Electronic Dashboard. The total projects for all the rural local authorities in the province were 32 for the eight districts.
“The projects included waiting mothers’ shelter, roads, vendors’ marts and piped water schemes. Of the 32, five which had high socio-economic impact were chosen to be the flagship projects that represent Mashonaland Central Province.
“Guruve and Rushinga were the only local authorities that managed to complete all their projects in the first 100 days,” said Mr Chiringa.
The flagship projects include waiting mothers’ shelter (Mt Darwin Hospital), weir and garden (Nyamunwe, Rushinga), Aurelia grading and dozing covering 14km (Muzarabani), Makombe and Nyamupfuta clinics (Guruve) and creation of a cattle fattening and nutrition garden (Mbire).
Mr Chiringa said the projects in the second 100-days included the renovation of old farm houses into clinics to reduce the distances that were being walked by people mainly in resettled areas to acquire health services.
He said the third cycle commenced on June 8.
“Most of these projects are funded by the local authorities and development partners, with about 25 percent of them being funded by the Treasury.
“Most of the projects submitted are in the social development cluster of the Transitional Stabilisation Programme,” he said.
On revenue collection by local authorities, Mr Chiringa, said there was a noted improvement, although most of the collected money is going towards the payment of salaries and not towards the core business of service delivery especially refuse collection.
“Now that Government has allocated money for development to nearly every local authority, my office is duty-bound to come up with an effective monitoring and evaluation system to the projects being implemented.
“The new dispensation requires them to plan and think strategically.
“We ensure that the contracts signed between chief executives and chairpersons of councils are monitored to ensure that their renewal are performance based,” he said.
Mr Chiringa added: “I am very confident with the measures that have been put in place by Government that compel local authorities to perform so that the living standards of people especially in rural areas are uplifted.”
On statutory obligations and salary arrears by local authorities, Mr Chiringa said, most of them were making efforts to clear them, save for Mazowe RDC which had accrued statutory arrears from $1 700 808 in January 2019 to $3 293 850 in April.
Rushinga and Mbire RDCs were said to have salary arrears for one month and four months respectively.
“I have noted that a district like Mazowe endowed with a lot of resources has not performed well and has incurred huge debts in terms of salary arrears and payment of statutory obligations.
“The local authorities have to employ new strategies and create new revenue sources. Whatever they collect, 70 percent must go towards service delivery and 30 percent towards salaries and allowances,” he said.