News / National
Urban, Rural Councils to be audited
25 Aug 2013 at 05:09hrs | Views
GOVERNMENT will soon begin an audit on all urban and rural councils to investigate their salary structures, service delivery performance and overall conduct of officials to ensure that more resources are channelled towards servicing towns and cities rather than self enrichment.
This comes amid revelations that Government will also establish a system where council officials are given yearly contracts to keep their performance in check.
Local authorities were mandated to structure their salaries according to the 70 percent to 30 percent ratio, with salaries taking up 30 percent of all council funds while 70 percent is directed towards service delivery. However, over the past couple of years a number of councils have failed to adhere to this ratio thereby impacting negatively on service delivery.
In an interview, outgoing Local Government, Rural and Urban Development Minister, Dr Ignatius Chombo, said Government would leave no stone unturned in its endeavour to ensure service delivery.
He noted that a number of councils were in the past misleading Government when presenting their annual budgets to reflect that they were adhering to the stipulated ratio while in fact they went against this, thus the need for a full scale audit.
"Our officials have been busy monitoring these local authorities and very soon they will be starting a full-scale audit on the overall performance of these councils, yes some might be performing satisfactorily but there are some that need to be pushed in the right direction.
"What you should always have in mind is that some of these councils don't take us seriously when we say that the majority of the council cake should be reserved for service delivery. They award themselves unjustified perks and allowances. This should end," said the minister.
He further revealed that in an effort to monitor service delivery they had resolved to give all senior council employees in the country performance-based yearly contracts that would see underperforming officials not getting bonuses or having their contracts terminated.
"We have noted that some local authorities are not operating efficiently thus the need to come up with mechanisms that will see them being forced to work rather than just presiding over the demise of service delivery.
"Being a council employee or councillor means you are there to manage people's rates and people expect results," said Dr Chombo.
The minister said they would not hesitate to dismiss any councillor or official found to be on the wrong side of the law as they wanted to rid the sector of all corrupt elements.
He said no council would be left unscathed by the audit team as it was their aim to rid councils of all corrupt elements who hide behind the excuse of local governance.
This comes amid revelations that Government will also establish a system where council officials are given yearly contracts to keep their performance in check.
Local authorities were mandated to structure their salaries according to the 70 percent to 30 percent ratio, with salaries taking up 30 percent of all council funds while 70 percent is directed towards service delivery. However, over the past couple of years a number of councils have failed to adhere to this ratio thereby impacting negatively on service delivery.
In an interview, outgoing Local Government, Rural and Urban Development Minister, Dr Ignatius Chombo, said Government would leave no stone unturned in its endeavour to ensure service delivery.
He noted that a number of councils were in the past misleading Government when presenting their annual budgets to reflect that they were adhering to the stipulated ratio while in fact they went against this, thus the need for a full scale audit.
"Our officials have been busy monitoring these local authorities and very soon they will be starting a full-scale audit on the overall performance of these councils, yes some might be performing satisfactorily but there are some that need to be pushed in the right direction.
"What you should always have in mind is that some of these councils don't take us seriously when we say that the majority of the council cake should be reserved for service delivery. They award themselves unjustified perks and allowances. This should end," said the minister.
He further revealed that in an effort to monitor service delivery they had resolved to give all senior council employees in the country performance-based yearly contracts that would see underperforming officials not getting bonuses or having their contracts terminated.
"We have noted that some local authorities are not operating efficiently thus the need to come up with mechanisms that will see them being forced to work rather than just presiding over the demise of service delivery.
"Being a council employee or councillor means you are there to manage people's rates and people expect results," said Dr Chombo.
The minister said they would not hesitate to dismiss any councillor or official found to be on the wrong side of the law as they wanted to rid the sector of all corrupt elements.
He said no council would be left unscathed by the audit team as it was their aim to rid councils of all corrupt elements who hide behind the excuse of local governance.
Source - Sunday News
