Harare councillors want directors streamlined

via Harare councillors want directors streamlined – DailyNews Live by Wendy Muperi 24 SEPTEMBER 2013

Peter Moyo, the Harare City Council chief whip, says the number of directors employed by Harare should be whittled down.

Moyo told the Daily News yesterday that the local authority has 13 directors whose duties literally duplicate.

“Of the 13, we just need six,” Moyo said.

“Most of them do not have anything to do right now. All they can do is sit on boards, backstab councillors and each other and at the end of the day take away fat cheques home.”

HCC has struggled to bankroll its bloated salary bill as it stutters in the wake of the slashing of all outstanding bills by government in July.

The city employs over 9 500 workers.

Moyo said the local government’s directive to plough back 70 percent of the council’s revenue was a long shot.

“Our ministry expects us to plough back 70 percent of what we get into service delivery, which cannot be achieved with such a bloated management,” he said, adding that the executive has actually become a major drawback in the council’s delivery success.

“There is double allocation of stands, all sorts of corruption.

“We have talked about these things but nothing is being done and at the end we as councillors are blamed for somebody else’s wrongs.”

Pisirayi Kwenda, the Local Government board chairperson, said they only appoint or dismiss the executive basing on submissions made by urban councils.

“Therefore, I cannot comment on whether the directors are many or few because the organogram is done by the ministry,” said Kwenda.

Killian Mpingo, the Local government permanent secretary, was not picking his mobile yesterday.