‘Local council budgets fail to capture public views’

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THE 2021 budgets by local authorities are not a true reflection of the views of the people, a survey by the Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development (Zimcodd) has revealed.
This comes as a number of people failed to participate in the process due to political and personal reasons, resulting in a number of issues not getting due recognition in the budgets.
“A large proportion of respondents (73 percent) hold the view that local authority budgets do not reflect the views of the public. This could partly explain the general lack of interest in participating in budget discussions,” Zimcodd said in its open budget survey report.

“In all the local authorities, women reported that their participation in budget consultations was restricted by the following key factors: timing of the meetings, lack of prior notification of the date of the budget consultation, poor understanding of the issues because of use of jargon, and the perception that participating in the process is a waste of time as their views are not taken into account.”