Lack of funds stall development

THE Midlands province has completed 95 out of 410 developmental projects targeted for this year due to financial constraints, a senior official in the physical planning department has revealed.
 

A map of the Midlands province

Chisainyerwa Chibururu, a physical planning officer, told delegates at a provincial development committee annual review meeting in Gweru last week that the 410 projects required a budget of $13,5million.

“In the year (2014) under review the province had a total of 410 projects projected at a cost of $13 592 863 but only 95 projects were completed,” Chibururu said.

“Overall the province had a failure rate of 76,83% meaning 315 projects out of a total of 410 projects were not completed with a completion rate of 23,17%.”

Chibururu said the province recorded a 41% success rate in its planned projects.

“In 2013 the province managed to complete 228 projects, while 335 projects were still to be completed, which is a 40,5% completion and 59% failure rate respectively,” he said.

The official said the uncompleted projects had to be carried over to next year.

“The figures point to an unfavourable macro-economic environment, as well as dwindling revenue base collection for local authorities, donors, government departments and local authorities failing to disclose their expenditures in time and the cash flow budget system,” he said.

According to the review, Gokwe North district implemented the highest number of projects (88) at a cost of $405 000, while Gweru and Mvuma had the least, 31 and 26 at a cost of $2,6 million and $300 000 respectively.

The urban development subsector had the highest number (97) of projects implemented while water and sanitation had the least at 23.- NewsDay