The Sunday News
Vusumuzi Dube, Online News Editor
THE Bulawayo City Council is working on modalities that will see the establishment of recreational and vocational facilities in all the city’s 29 wards.
This came out during an internal audit of the local authority’s vocational training programmes where it was noted that while the facilities that were operational were effective as they met their set goals and objectives, limited funding was hampering the sustained delivery of programmes.
The audit was mainly meant to evaluate the effectiveness of the city’s vocational training programmes and covered the period from January 2018 to December 2020.
As one of its findings, the audit team noted that recreational centres are only found in the old suburbs as there has been no development of such facilities in new areas thus depriving youths in these areas of opportunities available to their counterparts in the older suburbs.
The audit noted that this skewed development needs to be addressed so that youths in the new suburbs are not disadvantaged.
“The city needs to come up with innovative ways to finance the construction of recreational facilities in new suburbs. In a research we undertook, we found that some cities overseas finance such developments by what is termed, a Development Impact Fee (DIF).
“The DIF is assessed when a developer applies for a development permit within the area under development. It is calculated by dividing the total estimated cost of a recreational project among the estimated population at full community built out, inclusive of residential and non-residential properties,” reads part of the audit findings.
The internal audit also identified a number of challenges being faced by the vocational training centres in the city, which include limited donor support in funding recreational activities, limited resources and limited funding.
“The challenges lead to reduced enrolment of students, inadequate training resources both in terms of personnel and equipment and compromising quality of training. There are, however, opportunities to unlock funding for youth oriented developmental activities such as those provided by the city’s centres.
“We recommend that VTC management approach successful former students who benefitted from VTC programmes to encourage them to give back to their communities and also seek funding opportunities by way of issuing a prospectus for the youth friendly services provided by the city in liaison with the City’s Economic Development section,” reads the report.
The audit also revealed that there are staff shortages in all the vocational, home craft and recreational centres, which in some cases has led to closure of some centres and in other cases meant some staff members manning more than one centre.
“We noted that the financial statements that have been prepared by PKF Chartered Accountants and Business Advisors as at financial year 2018 are unaudited. Further, 2019 to 2020 financial statements have not yet been prepared.
“Delay in final accounts preparations may cause issues to go undetected for a long time and may also lead to manipulation of records,” reads the report.
The first African youth clubs were established in the city on 21 February 1959 when council passed a resolution to start with two clubs on a trial basis.
With the success of the initial centres, more were established in almost all the townships, which were supported through the liquor undertaking section.
