Kabwe Town Clerk (TC), Ronald Daka says the wage bill for the municipality has increased tremendously to an extent that the local authority is facing serious challenges to pay salaries.
Mr. Daka said the monthly wage bill for the council stands at about K2.4million which is largely financed by government through the Equalization Fund currently pegged at K1.3 million per month.
He said this in a report presented on his behalf by the Director of Public Health, Paul Mukuka, to the ordinary full council meeting in Kabwe.
Mr. Daka said the equalization fund which is the main source of payments for officers in divisions one to three is not adequate adding that it is late by one month making it difficult to pay the rest of the workforce.
He stated that the balance of about K1. 6 million has to be generated locally in order to meet the monthly total wage bill for all the workers putting a strain on service delivery by the council.
Mr. Daka disclosed that in the interim, arrangements are being made to secure an overdraft facility to pay the rest of the workforce in the next one week while management awaits for the March 2018 equalization fund.
He however said management is pushing for the completion of the valuation roll which should be ready for implementation in the second quarter of this year among others long term interventions.
Meanwhile, Mr. Daka said the newly opened Intra City Bus Station in Kabwe is reportedly running at a loss saying the municipality is spending about K53, 400 in service charges and wages.
Mr. Daka said this is a sharp contrast to about the K25, 000 the council collects in bus charges and ablution fees per month.
He explained that the council on average per month spends K8, 000 on water, K1, 000 on electricity, K3, 900 on toiletries and K41, 000 on workers manning the station.
Mr. Daka has since urged the council to consider revising the daily fees upwards or reduce the current fees and start charging buses per trip in order to improve the revenue performance.
He argued that the move would see the council raise about K72, 000 per month from the Intra City Bus Station.
And Kabwe Mayor, Prince Chileshe, advised the council management to be cautious with tariff adjustments.
Mr. Chileshe said there are guidelines to that effect saying management should study them carefully before implementing any revisions.
And Kabwe Municipal Council has approved the expenditure of over K700, 000 Constituency Development Fund (CDF) for Kabwe Central to be used for various developmental projects.
The ordinary full council meeting that was held at the Civic Centre yesterday unanimously gave a go ahead for the expenditure of K781, 946 CDF for various projects.
This was after the Director of Public Health, Paul Mukuka, on behalf of the Town Clerk, Ronald Daka, presented the recommendations of the Kabwe District Development Coordinating Committee for considerations.
About K240, 000 out of the funds has been set aside for the gravelling and rehabilitation of roads in all the wards in the municipality.
This is where the rubber meets the road, hard facts, too difficult to run away from.
Reality check. As an outsider, I only get to know this when it’s in the news. People in govt deal with it every month but still it doesn’t stop them creating new so-called districts. If they didn’t know that councils were struggling to pay workers, the careless creation of districts would be attributed to lack of information. But they still do it anyway. I honestly don’t know how to theorise logically about Zambians. This is the public debt foreign lenders were talking about this week. It’s piling up every month in local authorities.
@ 1.1 Chanchima
Chanchima, how so true the point you have here underscored, namely: “the creation of so-called” new districts! Doesn’t that, in more ways than one, confirm my very own suspicion that anarchy is resident in our psyche, that we are the chief architects of the ills that haunt us on a day-to-day basis?
I agree entirely. I honestly cannot understand, I simply can’t, period. And politics isn’t for me. I follow it only because what they do affects me.
If Kabwe, a municipal council, one of the biggest in the country, should so struggle, how much more a rural council located in Imusho?
You and me are worried but the people in govt aren’t. And you expect council assets in their control to be safe? Workers who don’t get paid regularly are bound to pilfer in order to make ends meet.
Lets rollback 1964
What do you do with all the land and bussiness rates collected ? Pay each other hefty allowances I suppose…