The ManicaPost
Ray Bande Senior Reporter
MUTARE City Council has come under fire for failing to fill key positions with competent personnel.The persistent scenario, which has irked the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing, has left most of acting heads of departments at Mutare City Council spending more time jostling for posts, making decisions that protect themselves from councillors who at times influence their appointment or removal from such positions at the expense of service delivery.
The current status obtaining at Mutare City Council which is a conducive breeding ground for corruption, lack of accountability and transparency, has seen Mr Sternard Mapurisa (Director of Housing) and Engineer Donaldson Nyatoti (City Engineer) as the only substantive heads of department.
Finance department is being headed by Ms Tsitsi Useya, while the Health department has Mr Simon Mashababe all in acting capacity.
With Engineer Donald Nyatoti acting as the Town Clerk, Mr Maenzanise has been left to head the day to day operations of the Engineering Department.
Mr Maxwel Machaka is acting Chamber Secretary and is serving in the absence of Ms Gladys Muneta, who has also been acting for a good eight years.
With the exception of Mr Mashababe, none of the acting heads of departments has ever served at senior management level.
In an interview, Local Government, Public Works and National Housing Permanent Secretary, Engineer George Mlilo, lampooned the local authority for dragging its feet in filling vacant posts with substantive office bearers.
“The instruction from the Ministry is that all departments must be headed by substantive office bearers. Once they are acting they have no long term decisions to make.
“We do not like the prevailing scenario at all. Obviously when they submit their budgets all this must be factored in. We cannot tolerate a situation whereby acting office bearers are allowed to go on and on just for the advantage of a corrupt few people. We recently told them that they should put their house in order.
“We have got so many qualified people around the country who do not have jobs and you cannot tell us that Mutare is failing to get the right persons for those jobs. There is no reason why they should cling on to unqualified people.
“In fact, if they (Mutare City Council councillors) fail to do so within the expected time frame, we will be forced to take them out of council,” said Eng Mlilo in a telephone interview early this week.
Research on local government operations has revealed that having acting heads of departments in councils breeds an element of uncertainty and affects the confidence of office holders.
This in turn affects service delivery in that officers shy away from making critical decisions. It has also been discovered that a lot of time is also wasted by negative jostling for positions with others even working to prove others’ incompetence or trying to outdo them.
Addressing attendees at a Local Government Investment Conference held in Victoria Falls recently, Eng Mlilo should appoint substantive individuals as investors wanted to deal with permanent heads of department, especially for long-term deals.
“Mutare, you cannot advertise the post of Town Clerk and go for ages without filling the post. We expect you to resolve the issue,” he said.
According to a recent study carried out by the Harare Residents Association called An Analysis into the Impact of Acting Heads of Departments in running the City of Harare, officials holding positions in an acting capacity have very little room to challenge decisions made by other heads.
The study says there are high possibilities that during the acting period, the person lacks independence and, is open to manipulation by councillors.
“The absence of a substantive finance director makes it extremely difficult for the person acting to make substantial proposals, fearing that the proposals might be turned down by the councillors, risking the chances of landing the position on a substantive basis.
“This current status, where the Harare City has acting heads of department is causing a lot of corruption, lack of accountability and transparency within the city. This reflects a sign of poor governance in the local government sector,” reads part of the findings.
