The Sunday News
Ngonidzashe Chiutsi Sunday News Correspondent
THE Bulawayo City Council (BCC) is owed more than $80 million in unpaid bills since June last year when Government ordered councils to write off debts to domestic consumers, city mayor Councilor Martin Moyo has said.Clr Moyo said they were collecting a paltry 30 percent of the total revenue they were supposed to collect per month, a situation that had seen ratepayers accruing over US$80 million debt since June last year when all local authorities in the country were directed to write off debts to domestic consumers.
“The rate of collection is 30 percent of what we should be collecting per month and the other 70 percent is what is accumulating to the domestic debt,” said Clr Moyo while addressing city residents last week in Bulawayo. He said residents were defaulting on paying their rates resulting in rising debts.
“Currently we are owed in excess of US$80 million in the short space of time since Government gave a directive to slash debts in June last year,” said Clr Moyo. He said failure to collect revenue had resulted in poor service delivery.
“We are a huge authority with an establishment of 5 400 workers and about 3 500 are at work right now. We are short staffed and that’s why the reactions are slow when we respond to faults. We cannot employ because we are unable to pay. If the residents were paying their dues in time then we were going to be able to deliver,” said Clr Moyo.
Last month the Government also ordered the Bulawayo City Council to reduce the 2014 budget by $10 million.
Council had a proposed revenue budget of $113 762 104 for the year which was slashed to $103 762 104. Reports say most of the city’s revenue used to come from industries but following the closure and relocation of many companies in the city, the revenue base drastically went down.
Close to 100 companies reportedly closed shop in Bulawayo, which used to be the hub of the country’s industry due to a myriad of problems chief among them operational challenges.
Over 20 000 workers were reportedly thrown out of employment after the companies closed and were struggling to pay their utility bills to service providers such as BCC.
