Harare City Council dogged by low bills payments, delivers US$548,1 mln budget
By Staff Reporter/Agencies
THE Harare City Council (HCC) has approved a US$548,1 million budget for the year 2025 with water and sanitation and road rehabilitation receiving the biggest shares on the back of low bills payments by residents.
Premised under the theme, “Enhancing Service Delivery; Building a Sustainable Green Future Together” was delivered by the Finance and Development Committee chairperson Councillor Costa Mande
He said the local authority is faced with a number of challenges ranging from low bill payments to US$-denominated water treatment chemical prices.
“Your Worship, fellow Councillors, it is my honour and privilege to present for your approval, the 2025 revenue and capital estimates; capital expenditure of US$137,3 million, recurrent expenditure of US$410,8 million to give a total of US$548,1 million,” he said.
Mande said about US$72,8 million will be mobilised through internal resources with the remainder being generated via other sources.
The largest vote was allocated towards water and sanitation which received US$195,6 million followed by the Roads program at US$93,8 million on the back of long-term plans to rehabilitate 250 km.
“For the year 2025, the City targets to rehabilitate 33,4 KM of roads and carry out 500 KM of routine maintenance with funding from ZINARA. The above figures indicate a serious funding gap which must be dealt with so that we improve the state of our roads,” he said.
Public Safety and Security Services were allocated US$43,5 million and Social Services US$96,3 million.
Mande said total revenues for 1 January to 30 September 2024 amounted to ZWG2.008 billion against a billing of ZWG5.064 billion due to the fact that revenue collection was subdued in the first and second quarter with average collection efficiency of 35%.
The third quarter witnessed significant improvement to 52% compared to the average 35% obtained in the previous quarters.
“With constrained cash flows to fund both recurrent and capital expenditure, the result was that capital expenditure was substantively subdued with the city expending 10% of its targeted expenditure for the period under review.
“Hamstrung by cash flows there was a significant growth in creditors as the City struggled to pay for immediate recurrent expenditure, mainly water, chemicals and power. Debtors also grew significantly exacerbated by the recent exchange rate upsurge in September,” he said.
Total expenditures for the same period amounted to ZWG 2.342 billion against a proportional budget of ZWG5,884 billion with expenses indicating that compensation of employees, goods and services, continued to be major cost drivers to the total expenditure.
