Councillors from Mwanza City Council have rejected the proposed budget for the city worth 87.3bn/- for the 2014/2015 financial year, claiming that it does not meet people’s expectations.
The decision was announced by the Mayor, Mr Stanislaus Mabula, who joined councillors from both divides to give the city council’s executives another chance to improve the budget.
“We have rejected the proposed budget with good intentions to give a second chance to executives to work on the shortcomings we have pointed out before it is approved,” said Mayor Mabula.
The weaknesses identified by the councillors included the underestimate of the city council’s own sources of income for the development budget which has been set up at 9bn/-.
The Deputy Mayor, Mr John Minja insisted that councillors need the city council’s own sources of income to be reviewed up to between 13bn/- and 15bn/-, because the city council has a lot of sources of income that can meet the needs of its citizens.
Mr Bhiku Kotecha, Nyamagana Ward Councillor said that there are unscrupulous officials in the city council and that is why Mwanza is incapable of collecting enough funds from its own sources. He also challenged the Mwanza City Council Executive Director, Mr Halipha Hida to be strong in supervision of revenue collection.
He said that the most unscrupulous individuals in the city council are those responsible for collecting revenues, noting that as councillors, they have been following up on the matter and have proof of malpractices.
Mr Adam Chagulani of Igoma Ward, said that most money is being stolen from property tax where the city loses so much money that could have to finance development projects.
He cited as an example the continued tendency by officials from Ilemela Municipal Council to collect taxes from Mwanza City Council, which is against the law. He went further to name one of the officials as Mr George Mpoli who had been transferred from the city council to Ilemela municipal council.
Mr Mpoli is reported to have been continuing to collect taxes and get commission from the registered properties in the jurisdiction of Mwanza city council, while his domain is Ilemela municipal council.
By MOSES MATTHEW, Tanzania Daily News
