06 Dec 2022

Inadequate budget and challenges emanating from Gaborone’s growth denies the city council 100 per cent customer satisfaction in service delivery, says Mayor Austin Abraham.

Addressing a  full council meeting yesterday, Mr Abraham said since the 2016/17 financial year, Gaborone City Council had been experiencing deficits.

He said efforts to contain expenditure had been frustrated by rising commodity prices as well as high demand for services driven by increasing population.

“The situation was also aggravated by the aging infrastructure such as roads which requires that more resources have to be committed on maintenance,” Mr Abraham said.

The mayor said while council was grappling with the challenges, it also had to deal with a declining recurrent budget since the 2019/20 financial year when it stood at P453 million but dropped to P440 million in 2020/21.

Mr Abraham said the following year, the budget dropped by 12 per cent to P387 million.

He said the shrinking budget compelled council to come up with measures to increase revenue collection among them capacitation of its Credit Control Unit.

The unit was currently undertaking an intensive house to house campaign to sensitise residents on their obligation to pay rates and other services, the mayor revealed.

Mr Abraham said council was in the process of procuring two vehicles to be dedicated to the unit.

On another issue, he said a tender had been floated for engagement of property valuers for rating purposes.

The resultant valuation roll was expected to include properties which came into existence after 2008 when the current valuation was created, he said.

Mr Abraham said the valuation processes would also resolve other issues which impeded collection such as ownership, consolidation and subdivisions.

The mayor revealed that the Finance and General Purpose Committee was considering   engaging commercial banks in the collection of rates.

“Council has introduced digital payment platforms such as the USSD code (*183#) and a website to induce payment for services.

I am informed that we are awaiting approval by ministry to interface these platforms with Cogsdale which is a system used for rating. Request has been made to the ministry for approval,” he said.

The mayor said his hope lay in the implementation and ratification of the Decentralisation Policy which would make the council autonomous, separate from the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development.

In addition, Mayor Abraham  said with the vast amount of undeveloped land  around the city,  he was hopeful for private, public partnerships to leverage on the available spaces and help generate revenue for the council. ENDS