Retention Funds: BCC Clears Air

BULAWAYO: The Bulawayo City Council (BCC) has finally cleared the air on Ward Retention Funds (WRFs) after a local pressure group, Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association (BPRA) recently petitioned City authorities demanding to know how the WRFs were spent between 2016 and 2018.

THE Bulawayo City Council (BCC) has finally cleared the air on Ward Retention Funds (WRFs) after a local pressure group, Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association (BPRA) recently petitioned City authorities demanding to know how the WRFs were spent between 2016 and 2018.

BCC set up WRF in 2017 to assist the City’s 29 wards with developmental grants drawn from three percent of what each ward will have paid to the local authority in rates. 

But according to a recent petition by BPRA, some wards did not utilize the WRF since it was established, a development the pressure group said raised eyebrows.

But in a response which came weeks after the petition was lodged, BCC authorities said WRFs were only disbursed following a proposal by a sitting Councillor. In a statement gleaned by this publication, the Council also provided a breakdown of the usage of the WRFs which BPRA had raised a red flag on.

"In accordance with the resolution alluded to above funds gleaned in a particular financial year should be dispersed to the ward development fund in the up-coming year for example, funds collected in the 2016 financial year ought to be dispersed in the 2017 financial year subject to submission of project proposals from ward development committees through their ward councillors," reads the statement.

"It is common cause that ward development funds are a creature of statute in that council made a resolution for the fund creation and the modalities of implementation remain a preserve for council officials."

The Council also dismissed claims that WRFs were implemented in 2016 as highlighted by the BPRA petition.

"It is of significance to note that much as the promulgation of the policy/resolution kicked-in 2016, the resolution giving birth to the operationalisation of the fund was only given the nod in July 2017 pretty much a year after its promulgation.”

“For purposes of clarity we need to elucidate that it could not be possible for council officials to have disbursed anything by way of ward development fund in 2017 at all as the fund only started operating in July 2017 and therefore, the earliest possible implementation could only have been August 2018,” the statement further reads.

The Council said the time lag between promulgation and operationalisation of the funds left officials at a difficult state due to legal technicalities that possible saw them as being in defiance of authority.

"Such conduct on the part of the officials may lead them being hauled before disciplinary authorities and being hauled over the hot coals may not be overruled."

The authorities said they were operating on a 'shoe string' budget due to defaulting rate-paters and poor economic performance sub-par at macro level hence challenges in disbursing WRFs.

BPRA acting coordinator, Emmanuel Ndlovu confirmed receipt of the BCC communique but said they were not fully convinced by the response because the local authority was yet to send a breakdown of the usage of the funds for other wards.