Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. By Bulawayo Correspondent – BULAWAYO residents have clashed with their local council over the latter’s decision to conduct the 2021 budget performance review and the 2022 proposed budget through social media platforms.
The Bulawayo City Council (BCC) recently notified residents and other stakeholders through a circular that budget consultations be conducted on WhatsApp groups from September 29.
Bulawayo Progressive Residents Association (BPRA) last Thursday wrote to the BCC raising concerns over the local council’s decision to conduct the two processes over social media platforms.
“This letter serves to raise concerns over the decision by Bulawayo City Council to conduct the 2021 budget performance review as well as present the 2022 proposed budget via WhatsApp platform,” the letter reads in part.
“BPRA has noted with concern a circular written by the BCC noting that these consultations will be conducted on WhatsApp groups from Wednesday 29 September 2021.
“Our main concern is on combining the review of the 2021 budget process with the presentation of the 2022 proposed budget,” said BPRA coordinator Emmanuel Ndlovu.
The residents’ association argued the 2021 budget performance review is an essential process for residents to monitor the use of public funds by the local authority and it would not be effective to combine it with the 2022 proposed budget presentations.
“There is also no reliable portal for residents to continuously access information in order to periodically review the budget, thus this process is critical and should be given adequate time,” Ndlovu added.
The residents said they were also uncomfortable with using WhatsApp groups as the platform had in the past to be a failure.
“Another concern is the use of WhatsApp groups to conduct budget consultations as this platform proved to be ineffective during the 2021 budget consultation process.
“Residents raised concerns the previous budget consultation process did not serve its purpose as most residents either did not have data or the times were inconvenient for them to attend the organised WhatsApp meetings. The WhatsApp meetings were also inadequate for residents to make their contributions,” said Ndlovu.
He also noted key council staff failed to attend the previous meetings.
“Also due to the clashing times for these meetings, the most relevant council staff to the budget process such as the finance director could not attend all the meetings.
“Challenges arose as some of the council staff members who were allocated to conduct these meetings could not well articulate the financial figures and components resultantly leading to futile deliberations,” he said.
The residents suggested the local council should seriously consider holding physical meetings in the wake of relaxed Covid-19 regulations.
“As the Covid-19 cases in the country have significantly dropped and public gatherings limited to 150 people are allowed the 2021 budget review process, and the 2022 budget consultation meetings, should be conducted separately and physically to ensure that these processes have value and serve their purposes. BPRA is also willing to organize these meetings for BCC,” added Ndlovu.
