Citizens unhappy with devolution fund allocation in national budget
Devolution remains a key pillar in addressing public service delivery challenges as it avails funds to local authorities and should be prioritised in the national budget to foster development, an official has said.
For 2022, Finance and Economic Development Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube allocated ZWL$42.5 billion towards devolution.
Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development (ZIMCODD) Executive Director Janet Zhou said timely disbursements of the measly devolution funds are as important as the resources themselves given the highly inflationary environment that devolution is implemented under.
She said safeguards need to be put in place to ensure that the funds are not abused and are used for their intended purposes in line with the basic public finance management principles including transparency and accountability.
“The national devolution allocated funds are not even double the 2022 budget proposal of Bulawayo City Council which is ZWL 26.7 billion. To this end, if the government is serious about attaining vision 2030, there is a need to re-orient security service allocations considering that Zimbabwe is not at war with any nation but is battling social and economic challenges and inequalities that are affecting millions of its citizens,” she said.
According to Zhou, local authorities are the ones closer to the people and have the mandate to deliver basic public services to residents including basic healthcare, refuse collection, water and sanitation.
“Currently women are faced with a number of public service delivery challenges which include acute water shortages, poor public healthcare and poor public education. All these challenges increase the burden of unpaid care work for women as they are forced by the cultural and traditional norms to fill in the public service delivery gap,” added.
“Local authorities have also been found wanting in the provision of conducive spaces for women to fully realise their potential in the informal sector like proper vending stalls despite them constituting the majority in the sector. Therefore, devolution funds have the potential to address some of these challenges faced by women but again there is need for fundamentals to be put in place if this potential is to be realised,” she added.
She also said the expenditure of the devolution funds must be informed by the principles of gender responsive public expenditure for them to cater for the specific public service delivery needs of women.
Aspiring councillor Nicola Dhliwayo from Entumbane suburb said devolution funds could foster development in Bulawayo as the city was struggling to keep up with the growing population.
She said since the allocation was in local currency, the Government should disburse the funds timely before they are affected by inflation.
“There is so much that needs to be done to improve service delivery in Bulawayo but less funds, which leaves residents especially women affected. Yes we acknowledge the allocation but it will not cover every area that we wish to be addressed so that women can have better lives especially water and then road infrastructure,” she said.