THE preliminary financial reports on the Patriotic Front-run councils have revealed massive misdirection of funds with Lusaka City Council using K42 billion on personal emoluments and administrative costs leaving only about K17.7 billion on service delivery in the financial year ending 2009.
In the two-year period between 2008 and December 2009, the council raised a total of K124 billion but only K27 billion was used in providing services while the rest was used for personal emoluments and administrative expenses.
This represents 15 per cent on service provision of the total amount while 85 per cent was used for personal emoluments and administrative costs in the two-year period.
The council collected K14,278,819,000 from rates in 2008 and K14,055,171,000 in 2009 but the total income, including other services amounted to K64,400,503,000 in 2008 and K59,647,502,000 in 2009.
The transition into percentages for the two years shows that 44 per cent of the funds were spent on personal emoluments while administrative costs gobbled 34 per cent, leaving only 22 per cent for service provision.
Local Government and Housing Deputy Minister Moses Muteteka said a process had been started by a special team of experts to identify specific individuals who might have abused resources for onward reporting to the security wings.
The report says the council faced the challenge of irregular payments from levies, and Government grants as well as unaccounted for grants.
There was also reduced expenditure on service delivery instead of the 40 per cent of the total budget as directed by the Ministry of Local Government and Housing.
Ndola City Council had a total income of K21,652,772,000 in 2008 in grants from the Government, land rates and levies while the figure went up to K29,725,246,177 in 2009.
Of this amount, only 21 per cent was spent on service provision while a total of 77 per cent went to recurrent expenditure and only two per cent was used for infrastructure development.
The report states that the council overspent by about K5,495,015,960 without preparing a supplementary expenditure. There was also non-availability of title deeds for council properties and non maintenance of ledgers.
There was no preparation of certificate of completion for projects while the format for the receipts did not meet standards.
Other irregularities included under-banking, irregular payments, failure to update stock ledgers and poor management of imprest apart from failure to remit withholding tax to the Zambia Revenue Authority.
Kitwe City Council only spent K4,488 billion representing 13 per cent on service provision and infrastructure of the total K35.5 billion in 2009 while only 29 per cent of K62,630,000,000 which was income for the two years was spent on service provision.
The council generally failed to maintain ledgers and also failed to manage imprest effectively.
Chingola Municipal Council only spent two per cent on service provision in 2008 while 45 per cent of the total revenue was utilised as employee-related costs and also failed to prepare final books of accounts. About 53 per cent went to admin-istrative costs.
[Times of Zambia]
These are just ways to try and dissolve these councils. It will not change our stand against the corrupt MMD.
A party lead by a convicted criminal can only deliver misery on the institutions it has a window of of opportunity to preside on. there is Sata in a “catch 22 quagmire. This plunder PF plunder is Sata’s Merzaf version 2 plunder that forced Mwanawasa to resign in protest. Its no surprise that Sata is fiercely opposing national infrastruture development of economic roads, hospitals, schools and citizen housing empowerment. Its in selfish interest of this plunder. This is his much pronounced of 90 days PF formular of “More money into every cadre’s pockets” a manifesto unveiled in the lost 2006 campaign.
the fact remains , whether these councils are opposition or not, that there is no accountability whatsoever. Ndola, for example has tottally failed.the road department has become completely nonexistant. do we need a muzungu to come from outside and help us remove accumated sand from junctions?do we need foreigners to show us that keeping drains clear is what will save our roads? the problem is also ourselves. we are to blame for the filth around us. tha fact is that we are not hygenic and civic oriented. we freely litter in our own country but when we are in another country we seek the litter bins? It is time to get expat guys in charge of finance , because it is clear we cant keep our fingers out of the till , thanks to kafupi, who taught us well!
No nation or people would risk their country, constitution, peace, unity resources and treasury with such callous criminals. It is treasonous to error in risking a stable model democratic country with the kind of nefarious leadership in PF who have a conscious to fiercely oppose national development, social service delivery, national unity and citizens’ opportunity for dignity by owning housing. These criminals do so just to extort from the people using institutions they are in charge of turned into their plunder centers.
Fools!wen will they learn that cheap propaganda no longer works in zed? how have the MMD run councils performed? Previously, council workers would go unpaid for several months, is this still the trend now?I guess not coz personal emoluments are being paid on time as well as clearing the back log.
It is because of Govt that councils cant perform.RB is holding on to the budgetary allocations and wen they cant perform he blames them.Lets have all councils audited and see the truth!
Yep, this is the 90 days Mr. Sata was talking about. When he said “more money in your pockets” he meant more money in the pockets of the PF. It is also surprising that Mr. Sata can preach low taxes when land rates for the councils is at skyrocket highs.
This is what the genocidal maniac Kalos2020 wants to impose and force on the Zambian people who have chosen to support a working and legitimate govt under the leadership of President Rupiah Banda. 22 percent for service provision whilst 44 percent went to personal emoluments. The 44 percent would have been used on drain-ages all over Lusaka so as to avoid the flood problem but what has happened, the problem requires a central govt bail-out when this is work a council can do. VOTE FOR PF AT YOUR OWN RISK
More money into the pockets indeed. Does this however mean only PF councils are corrupt. It would do good to asses even other councils so we can fish out the main plunderors. I wonder what Sata will say, since he declared that he runs the councils, meaning he is aware of all this.
#6 Mr. Capitalist- If you arev truely a Zambian I challenge you to take sample audit for instance of Kalulushi Municipal Council just 11Km from here, Kitwe. I challenge you and if you fail to react then stop bothering us with your Soviet/Maost propaganda you phool
Hahahah…MMD and its minions are desperate. They dont know what to do next. May be the next thing is to accuse PF and UPND of selling the mines on the copperbelt. This is being so childish baba. I will buy these jokes only if all MMD-run councils are audited as well. Interestingly, they are not telling us whether the salaries are valid or not. Are the salaries paid to the workers valid? Hehehe…Hmmm this is DESPARADO at its best. :-j=))=d>
Deja Vu
You have completely missed the point. First of all, I was born in Zambia, I have a Zambian NRC and a Zambian passport so your “if you’re truly Zambian” is simply a no-true Scotsman I will dismiss right here.
Secondly the issue is not Kalulushi municipal council. If/when we start talking about Kalulushi then you can call me out. The issue is Mr. Sata promising to deliver within 90 days whilst his councils misappropriate funds. 22 percent going to service provision whilst 44 percent goes to personal emoluments. Are you telling me you see nothing wrong with that?
Mr. Sata said he will govern through his councils when he lost one of the many elections he has taken part it. I cant believe you are not at all upset at the misapplying of these funds.[tbc
Only 13 percent went to service provision in KCC. Only 13 percent and you’re fine with that. Anyway what can I say, you have made up your mind and you’ll even go to the extent of ignoring the misappropriation of funds where 22 percent goes to service provision whilst 44 percent to personal emoluments not forgetting only 13 percent going to service provision in KCC.
The bottom line here is PF misuse of Civic funds and being in opposition they should have come out clean. In any audit concentration is on HIGH RISK areas and this happened to be PF run councils and not UPND or MMD run councils. PF controls almost 90% of councils in Zambia. Therefore,those arguing that other councils should have been audited as well are missing the point. Mr Sata promised 90 day miracle development in all his run council. We have not seen that miracle other than garbage and floods all over the place. Can the PF leadership explain what happened to civic money as it is in any audit instead of their cadres explaining unprofessionally.
The big question is, WHY HAS MMD FAILED TO IMPLEMENT THE DECENTRALISATION POLICY??
Those close to MMD know that their fear is that Councils will perfome better, especially the City and Municipal Councils which are under the opposition, and that would be a threat to the survival of MMD. This is the perception of those in MMD, its sad to have such shallow minded leaders that can hold back the development of the nation for their own benefit at the expense of the masses.
Finally, are the MMD controlled Councils doing better than those under the opposition?
Can MMD tell us why Councils they control e.g. Kaoma in Western Province, Milenge in Luapula and Isoka have had misappropriation cases (not misapplication)??
#10 Mr. Capitalist says: I know why I have mentioned Kalulushi. Its MMD run and we know what these people are spending on themselves. Good thing is Iam right here on the CB and I know what is going physically and not what you are getting from distorted sources like the Times etc. If RB was not campaining he should not have singled out PF controlled councils. He should also have querried the misdirected 50billion Kwacha land rates paid by Kansanshi Mines Plc during the time Solwezi had an MMD MP Look at things with a clear and un biased mind.If PF steals arrest them and the same should happen to MMD. RB thinks by mouthing these lies he will destroy the opposition strong hold ailasha. Getting ideas from a digraced FTJ is the lowest one can sink.
These are councils lead by a man who stood by in the arenas of power and watched as FJT raped zambias coffers, only quiting when he realised he will not be annointed. It is cheap of him to point a finger at RBs cossing up to FJT when he promised FJT a luxury retairment if he was made presido. indeed he has been in circles of power since KKs days. Now he can deliver development ?? i think so not.
You see floting voters, PF supporters just brash aside these very serious allegations that have a direct impact on our development as MMD desperation. Instead of being concerned as patriotic citizens should be, they just want to rid of RB. No matter who comes to power without caring were we as a country would head. They would even vote for Fr Bwalya as presido, just to get rid of RB
Deja Vu
How is this distorted? If it is please provide me with counter evidence. I would love to see it. I would love to see counter evidence that shows LCC did not spend 22 percent on service provision whilst 44 percent went to personal emoluments. I would also like to see counter evidence that shows KCC did not spend 13 percent on service provision.
Like I said, we are not discussing Kalulushi. We are discussing Lusaka, Chingola, Kitwe and Ndola. This is what the report has reported on and not Kalulushi. If you know what they are spending on themselves in Kalulushi, why haven’t you reported them?
You hate President Rupiah Banda so much that you will ignore the misappropriation of funds by PF run councils where only 13 percent goes to service provision in KCC. WOW
#10- Inealy forgot. Why is RB now trying to repair the roads after the councils explained that it was not their baby to maitain roads but that of the RDA a GRZ/MMD controlle parastatal? Another thing, you are educated enough I am sure to understand that the supply of water and sewer services is the duty of agents of the National Water and Sewer Co( another GRZ/MMD creation) such as Mulonga, Kafubu, Nkana etc. But MMD are using that as a campain against PF held towns saying that these councils have failed in this area. If you have any morals left can you please support this nonsense?
Deja Vu
Support what? President Rupiah Banda repairing roads? Of course I support President Rupiah Banda repairing roads.
Where have I denied that the supply of water and sewer services is the duty of agents at the National Water and Sewer Co (provide a quote)?
And what does this have to do with PF councils misappropriating funds?
16 Mr. Capitalist – Dont play semantics. I have not defended these counccils but I have challenged you that just 11km west of Kitwe there is an MMD controlled council which is visibly living in excessive luxury, but your president has failed to include this and other councils on the list of those failing to deliver. The problems that you see in Kitwe, such as poor sanitation, poor water supply, roads is utter disrepair etc are even worse in Kalulushi. Distorted reporting is there in Times of Zambia such as attributing the failure in the delvery of the above to the Councils when they know very well who is responsible. The reason is to mislead us we the ordinary citizens that these councils have failed. MMD has done everything to dicredit these councils with advice fromFTJ.
# 17 Deja Vu
“Another thing, you are educated enough I am sure to understand that the supply of water and sewer services is the duty of agents of the National Water and Sewer Co( another GRZ/MMD creation) such as Mulonga, Kafubu, Nkana etc”
But what is the job of the council ? surley if they see a failing sewer system or no clean water or folding streets they just cant stand by a watch ?. They have to ensure/force service delivery whether from GRZ parastatals of private firms. Or was there no many left to ensure service delivery ? or can you tell us what their job is ?
# 19 Deja Vu
So are you saying just because it is worst in Kalulushi then it is ok in Kitwe. Are you saying if Kalulushi misappropriates funds as you claim (without providing us evidence of course) then it is ok for Kitwe to also misappropriate funds? Is this a case of pointing at someone’s 40% grade to make your 42% grade look good?
But you still haven’t told me where Times of Zambia has distorted this report. Are they distorting when they report that LCC has misappropriated funds where 22 percent goes to service provision whilst 44 percent goes to personal emoluments? Are they distorting when they report that KCC has misappropriated funds where only 13 percent goes to service provision. You still have not provided us with the authentic report if TOZ is distorting.
cont.
If you have the authentic figures since you claim Times of Zambia is distorting, please email it to Lusaka Times or better, take it to the Post of Zambia so we can see the authentic report.
#18 Mr. Capitalist- On TVZ on Wedsday 19hrs news some Chingola Residents were paraded to complain about the Councils failure to supply good water, sewer services, and repair roads. The pot holed roads were even shown on TV. This what I mean by connecting this playing to the gallary by your president to PF controlled councils.You and me know who supplies these services, unless you just want to be maliciously mischievious Repair of roads? We have been crying and no action was taken by your GRZ/MMD. Its only when PF councillors managed to convince people that it was not their responsibility that your president panicked into action.
deja vu, dont lie here. Roads within the district council are the responsibility of the council NOT central government or Roads authority. central government is responsible for roads outside the district boundaries. within each district council they are supposed to have a roads budget with contribution from the roads fund. so if roads in kitwe or lusaka or kalulushi are not properly maintained it is the council that is held accountable not central government
#20kc- Thank you for your querry.The Council were incharge of these services including maintainance of council houses, but all these were taken from them. The only services they can supply is grass cutting, unblocking of drainages refuse collection. I am a member of the Resident Development Committee and I can tell you that the council tries hard to work with these utility companies, but they also have excuses such as being under funded, users(especially GRZ) not paying their bills, vandalism to their installations etc.What we need is to let everything go back to what used to be and start a fresh. FTJ knew that all councils were under performing and so chose to use this as a trump card against PF.He actually stated the decline of councils. Take politics out of councils.
#23 Deja Vu
But you said Times of Zambia distorts reports but what you told me on #23 was TVZ. So who is distorting reports here? Is it Times of Zambia or TVZ?
As ACCA qualified I want to believe that the local governvement ministry has internal auditors , then what are their period reports say and what is the response from the controling officer ( PS)?Or were they given a cut from these PF coucils?
you cannot justify a wrong with another wrong. PF are crooks full stop. and if there are other councils involved in this rubbish they must be held accountable no matter what whether PF or MMd or UPND. Councils must be swept clean. councillors are the closest politicians to the people and if Sata can fail to utlise the opportunity he had all these five years what more if he run the whole country?? it would be a disaster as we would have a chap like willie nsanda as minister of transport on the basis that he runs buses, GBM as minister of commerce because he is a successful business man, given lubinda home affairs, since he runs a bar and shops in libala, guy scott(chakolwa no.1 in zambia) as minister of finance, what a nightmare for our great country
#24 King Solomon- You have been away too long. Things changed during Madam Masebo’s tenure and ther is a written directive to that effect. All you need is to get in touch with one council for a copy. Infact at one time the GRZ engaged a certain Indian Road Co. which redid roads in all towns but thse have since been washed away or have developed crators. One such road is the one in Ndola from town to North Rise and Kansenshi.
#26 Mr. Capitalist – TVZ Times Daily are all the same, I just dont want go into unneccessory details. 28
#26 King Solomon- You are right, but my main concern is why the presi is choosing/discriminating on this issue. All councils must be forced to open their books to us. Talking about misuse of tax payers money should not only come when we an election no. All thieves must be treated as such.
AAHHHH,AAAAAH LT IS PRO MMD,PLIZ LIV THIS TO CAPITALIST AND OTHER STUPID MMD CADRES
Will such reports does PF stand for Pockected Funds:-?
Ok,how about we talk about the misapropriation of funds in the Foreign missions and all the ministries,we’ve read the reports can we see some action,then we can go to the councils,,,mind you this is just a preliminary report people
Let PF defend themselves. I am sure they have an explanation.
Also let’s remember that there’s a lot of political prostitution in Zambia, with people crossing between parties. Some PF politicians and councilors were MMD. They only left because they were out of favour. The character is teh same. So dont be surprised if the same old traits of plundering continue under PF. Dont be surprised if you see MMD traits in PF.
What we need are new people in leaders, with better characters.
#21Mr. Capitalist- Typical MMD. Did I say its ok for Kitwe to mis apply funds since Kalulushi do it? The point is your RB is taking advantage with FTJ help to single out the opposition for his political survival.Let him expose all councils- as I have said theft is theft. Your TVZ, tImes are not showing the other side of the coin. They are not questioning the MMD on townsunder MMD. One thing is I dont care whether its RB , Sata or HH, what I dont like is seeing a speck in another man’s eye ignoring the log in mine. I pay a lot of tax for which I get no returns- I pay school fees even in thhe supposedly free GRZ schools, I pay for drugs in free hospitals( a friend died last week in Mufulira due to lack drugs)
This is an MMD campaign website
#33RED CARD-Smoothcriminal- Good point. These are not allegations but proven activities which have been swept under the carpet.
Are all councils PF dominated? If not, why not produce a report on ALL the councils? That way, people can make decisions based on balanced and neutral data, rather than on apparently slanted reports.
My God, the desperation we are seeing in Zambian politics!!!!
As CIMA professional, one question i need to ask is where have the controls been all this time, and why have they just audited the PF lead councils now, why not audit all local authourites, the issue at hand is that if this huge gross misconduct only happened in PF councils , then it must definately be enormous within the MMD councils.
We certainly need to be at par guys, even though they could be smoke without fire sometimes, but why wash your friends dirty linen with out checking how dirty yours is.
My advice is for an apt and cordinated muscled up intensive audits for all local authourities.
We all remain to be a United One Zambia one nation, weather we are PF of MMD.Because wether guilty or not guilty they will still be some people who will go scout free no matter how guilty they
appear,eg the likes of Kafupi .
Good exchange between Mr Capitalist and Deja vu.My conclusion is that Mr Capitalist is smart enough to see the bigger picture but chooses not to for reasons best known to himself.
# 25 Deja Vu
As an insider can you help expalin, If the councils are doing so littel and service provision is wanting, were are all the funds collected by the councils going to ?
All councils in Zambia have the similar ratios? Are the MMD not indicting themselves on this?
What this report fails to say is whether the personal emoluments were overpayments or employees were entitled to them. In fact, what has been stated is that K5bn was spent without a supplementary budget. But as usual, the majority of the people went straight to commenting without reading the report. I have long opined that the amounts spent on admin expenses in the public sector is too high and does not make sense. At his first press conference, RB revealed that half of Govt revenue was spent on emoluments alone. Add other admin expenses and the Central Govt is no better than what has been reported here. But because the headline is so sensational, there has been more outrage here than on RB’s revelations. This country is a joke!
Meant amounts spent are too high
And are councillors the controlling officers in these councils? I don’t know why the PF is being put on the spot when there are people who handle these jobs, and they are not employed by the councillors, of this I am sure.Unless the revenue was being delivered to Sata’s house for him to then decide how it is given out, I do not see how he comes in. The man is not responsible for running these councils
# 47 Splaka
it is election time also in the UK. If an accusation as above is thorwn at a council held by the any of the candidates, heads will roll. If not the buck stops at the party leaders office. And so if no one is fired sata should accept responsibility.
Mud smearing tactics, it won’t work. The post that digs deeper will give us an actual breakdown of the figures.
The opposition controlled councils were supposed to be used as demonstration pieces to show the people how councils should be run – particularly that the PF leader and his secretary general, for example, have long experience in local Govt. If they can’t run councils then how do they convince anybody that they will turn things around in 90 days in Zambia? The point is: If the opposition is as good as the incumbent Govt., then I would rather the sitting Govt. continues.
The ignorance of Zambians as regards how they are governed is worrying. The opposition, while it has councelors is not fully in control of these Councils. Councillors are a board of directors but all important decisions, including Council budgets cannot be passed unless they have been approved by the Minister of Local Govt, therefore, in the current setup, it therefore not [possible to have an ‘Opposition council’ as is being portrayed. All concils are run by central govt, therefore, they are RUN BY RB.
As regards percentage of service delivery vs emoluments, LCC has a realistic budget of about K500 billion for it to adequately serve the city. However, govt has control of most revenue sources and they end up with only K70b, which genueis can cover a city of 2million pipo with that?
Since side A the opposition did badly, somebody
please, inform us on how well side B the incurmbent perfomed. Let`s have their accounts in the open too
Since side A the opposition did badly, somebody
please, inform us on how well side B the incurmbent perfomed. Let`s have their accounts in the open too, remember, we are sides of the same coin.