Stakeholders and women in Bulawayo capacitated on budget analysis skills
Women’s Institute for Leadership Development (WILD), in collaboration with Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association (BPRA), conducted a meeting with councillors and community ward co-ordinators from Bulawayo, in order to capacitate them with skills in budget analysis.
Speaking during the budget analysis, Ntokozo Tshuma highlighted the need for allocating the budget according to key priority areas in the city.
“Local authorities run their budget under the zero-based budgeting system, which entails that what they plan to use is what they should use, and economically, a dollar’s value today may not be the same dollar tomorrow.
“Referring to the previous budget, the income generated was ZWL 2.67 billion and the expenditure was ZWL 1.8 billion, marking a variance of ZWL 870 million. How can we have such a disparity in unused budgets when there were so many important issues that needed to be addressed, such as sewer bursts, water problems, and fire ambulance shortages, to name a few? The budget should really do more in addressing key areas of concern”, said Tshuma.
Tshuma went on to highlight some of the challenges that local government has faced which have affected the budget, one of which was a 150 percent increase in debtors.
“There has been a 150 percent increase in debtors, from 451.2 million in June 2020 to 1.77 billion as at June 2021. This has been caused by a number of factors including complacency of rate payers, under and over estimation of rates, rate payers waiting to get physical bills before making payments, high rates of revenue, inefficient management of accounting systems of the local authority to name but a few”, highlighted Tshuma.
Looking at the budget from a gender lens, America Ndlovu highlighted that there is a need to have a budget that is sensitive to the different needs of diverse genders.
“A gender responsive budget is a budgeting approach that is designed to mainstream gender dimensions in all stages of the budgeting cycle. It is with this that I emphasise that there is a need for the budget to be sensitive to the needs of all genders so as to achieve an inclusive budget.
“Members of the public should also be trained on what gender budgeting is so as to analyse the extent to which the budget is sensitive and address some of the gaps, hence contributing meaningfully to the budget process”, said Ndlovu.
Commenting on the presentation by Ndlovu, the Bulawayo Deputy Mayor, Mlandu Ncube, said that the City Council has been taking great strides to ensure that everyone is consulted on the proposed budget.
“As you have noticed during the Bulawayo City Council Budget consultations, the council strategically ensures that different groups are consulted. There is a consultation for women, youths, and informal traders, just to mention a few. This is so because we understand that these diverse groups have different needs; hence, we give them a platform to contribute to the budget,” submitted Ncube.
WILD has over the years made efforts to mobilise community women and female leaders to attend the virtual and physical Bulawayo City Council budget consultation meetings so that they can submit their views and ensure their grievances and issues are addressed in the budget.