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Yeukai Karengezeka Herald Correspondent
Harare City Council is in the process of coming up with a supplementary budget aimed at enabling the local authority to meet its expenditure bills under the prevailing economic environment, an official has said.

The city had budgeted $472,2 million before exchange rates began to fluctuate.

Acting finance director Mr Stanley Ndemera said it was crucial to come up with a new budget as the approved one was already exhausted.

“We crafted our 2019 budget on the basis that the exchange rate would be 1:1 but then following the pronouncement of the Monetary Policy Statement which then introduced the floating of the exchange rate the value of our budget was eroded, yet the income remained as 1:1 but the expenditure is probably 1:5 now,” he said.

Mr Ndemera said they had started making consultations civic groups and residents to come up with new figures.

“With effect from this Monday we are rolling out some consultation programmes starting with the pressure groups here at Town House and later on rolling out to residents in the wards,” he said.

“So far we are finding it very difficult to carry out our projects and service delivery programmes. So it is with that in mind that we have now decided to come up with a supplementary budget that takes into account developments that have just taken place in the economic environment.”

Mr Ndemera said the proposal had the approval of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing Minister July Moyo and it would take about two months to complete the exercise

“We have met the minister and he has urged us to do this and at the ministry, they are crafting additional guidelines that will guide us in coming up with the new budget.

“We have to go through all the necessary processes since there is no cutting of corners.

“The budget should be in place in the next two months and unfortunately it means that we are going to be struggling in the next two months,” he said.

Refuse collection

The city is currently struggling to pay for water chemicals, fuel and other operatinal expenses.

Meanwhile, the council which has been failing to collect refuse effectively in the past months said it will now start collecting waste everyday in a bid to clear the current back-log.

The city said it will introduce a cocktail of measures aimed at increasing efficiency in light of limited resources.

Harare City Council’s environmental and amenities manager Mr Lisben Chipfunde said they had put in place new strategies to collect refuse more efficiently.

“So far, our refuse collection rate is at 78 percent mainly due to the unavailability of fuel, among other things. We want it to become 100 percent and to achieve that we have come up with a two-shift cycle where one team works from 6am to 2pm in the afternoon then another one from 2pm to   8pm.

“We believe that it is a shared responsibility between residents, business and council to ensure that the city is litter free,” he said.

He said the city was expected to collect refuse in 36 areas every day and those trucks that completed their tasks early would be sent to other areas with uncollected garbage.

Areas such as Hopley, Dzivarasekwa Extension and Hatcliffe Extension will also now have more collections.

Mr Chipfunde said service delivery was also being hampered by insufficient refuse trucks with an order for 15 trucks in abeyance due to lack of foreign currency.

“The city had purchased 30 trucks and only 15 of them were delivered. The other 15 are still outstanding because we need US$1,3 million,” he said.

Council has 61 trucks in total but only 24 are available and operational and out of the 295 000 properties in Harare the local authority constantly collects from 203 000.

“We would like to have 76 trucks and (standby fleet) so that every ward gets a truck and when there is a breakdown we use the ones in on standy,” said Mr Chipfunde.