The Bulawayo City Council (BCC) claims that due to cash flow challenges, it was unable to pay its service providers within the stipulated 30 days, a situation which led to an increase in suppliers who now demand upfront payment.
As a result, BCC has a shortage of essential input materials in stock caused by the refusal of some suppliers to provide them on credit.
In his yearly end-of-year report, Bulawayo mayor, Councillor Solomon Mguni, said the city’s finances were unhealthy as a result of the current economic situation, which has a detrimental effect on the council’s performance.
“Cash flow challenges hindered Council from paying its trade creditors on time thereby negatively affecting relations with suppliers. Failure to pay suppliers within 30 days has seen an increase of suppliers who are now demanding cash upfront. As a result, stock levels of critical input materials are low as some suppliers are refusing to provide these on credit,” he said, adding strategies to reduce the high figure of debtors so as increase cash inflows are vigorously pursued in an effort to improve service delivery.
“Council continues to strive to minimise inconveniences to its valued suppliers and other creditors, by sharing the limited cash resources. Due to the current economic environment the City’s finances are not healthy and negatively affect the performance of the organisation.”
The mayor highlighted that residents and businesses continue to default in their payments as they owe ZWL$31.4 billion as at November 30, 2022.
“Recipients of council services, which is Government, Industry, Commerce and Domestic consumers continue to default in the payment for services, leading to challenges in sourcing service delivery inputs thereby affecting the level of service delivery in the city,” Mguni said encouraging consumers to pay bills on time and make payment arrangements whenever they are unable to pay by the due date.
Cllr Mguni said Bulawayo’s 2022 Budget was approved in February 2022 as it allowed the council to start the service delivery process early in the year.
The ZWL$23.8 billion budget was made up of the Revenue Budget of ZWL $15.9 billion and Capital Budget of ZWL $7.9 billion.
However, the mayor lamented that the current economic conditions, such as exchange rate volatility and price increases for key service delivery inputs, had an impact on council’s service delivery mandate during the fiscal year under review.
“As a result, Council with effect from June 2022 started indexing all tariffs and charges against the stable US Dollar at the ruling interbank rate. Ratepayers, however, continued to receive Zimbabwe dollar bills and can still choose either to pay in foreign currency or local currency,” he said.
“In line with the Smart City concept, Council incorporated a number of online payment platforms with various service providers for the convenience of the citizens and ratepayers. These platforms are accessible 24 hours a day. Ratepayers can also register to access details of their accounts and their balances at the comfort of their homes through Council’s online e-registration platform.”
Regrettably, uptake of these platforms has been low, stated the mayor, noting the “perennial queues” at the Revenue Hall, as evidence.
“The Revenue Hall now opens at 7.00 am from Monday to Friday in order to bring convenience to customers who would want to pay their bills before going to their various workstations,” he said.
Cllr Mguni claimed BCC has progressively made great strides in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and the council’s website were now responsive and could be easily accessed.
“Further services are planned for accessing online such as uploading your meter readings in the near future,” he said.
“The City of Bulawayo installed solar system at the Revenue Hall which has assisted in making sure that computer servers are not affected by any power outages. Plans are underway to connect the entire Revenue Hall to green energy. Bulawayo will continue to implement strategies for the improvement of ICT and hope to adopt some Local Authority Digital System (LADS) modules, as expected by the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works.”
