THE commission of inquiry into operations at the Harare City Council (HCC) from 2017 to date has unearthed massive corruption at Town House amid reports that every week, councillors and managers held workshops outside the capital for the past few years.
This was revealed when council public works director Zvenyika Isaiah Chawatama appeared before the Justice Maphios Cheda commission yesterday.
He was being grilled by commissioner Thabani Mpofu.
Mpofu asked Chawatama if he was aware that councillors and managers held workshops outside Harare every week in Kadoma, Victoria Falls, Kariba or Mutare.
He told Chawatama that their investigations also revealed that the workshops were being held every week despite deteriorating service delivery in the capital.
Mpofu said they had since initiated a move to stop the workshops through the Local Government and Public Works ministry.
Chawatama threw councillors under the bus as he concurred with the commission saying since he joined council in May last year, the councillors have been holding workshops outside Harare.
“Workshops are driven by the human resources department and managers, and councillors are driven by the need for allowances and this is a misplaced priority,” he said.
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“Council is (not doing well) at the moment in terms of revenue collection. We need to up our game and improve the willingness to pay by our ratepayers,” he said.
Mnangagwa in May appointed the commission led by retired judge Justice Cheda to investigate the City of Harare’s management and council on issues dating back to 2017.
Other members of the commission are former MDC senior official Lucia Matibenga, Steven Chakaipa, Tafadzwa Hungwe and Khonzani Ncube, a Local Government ministry official.
Local Government and Public Works permanent secretary John Basera is the commission’s secretary.
The commission is set to investigate financial management systems and audit compliance with the Public Finance Management Act and to investigate financial management of revenue generated through special vehicle companies and other outsourced arrangements.
Justice Cheda’s commission was directed to investigate reasons behind the failure to operate an enterprise resource planning system for HCC and to quantify any losses accruing as a result.
