Harare City Council may be losing over US$70 million annually in uncollected revenue due to the lack of an advanced enterprise resource planning (ERP) financial system, according to Engineer Hosiah Chisango, the suspended town clerk.
Chisango disclosed this information during his testimony on Thursday before the Commission of Inquiry into the operations of Harare City Council, which has been investigating the council’s affairs since 2017. The commission is chaired by retired judge Justice Maphios Cheda.
The absence of a functional ERP system has resulted in significant revenue shortfalls, with the city failing to collect between 40% and 50% of what it should be earning. Chisango estimates that this loss could amount to US$350 million over the past five years. The city’s financial systems are outdated, relying on tools meant for smaller businesses and manual processes, which have led to inefficiencies.
Harare’s residents continue to experience poor services, such as inconsistent garbage collection, deteriorating road conditions, and unreliable water supply, which Chisango attributes to these financial management issues. An ERP system is typically used by businesses to streamline operations such as accounting, procurement, and supply chain management.
Chisango further explained, “Our budget exceeds US$500 million annually, but with the ineffective system, we are only able to collect about half of what we should. If the system were functioning properly, we would collect at least 75%, reducing the shortfall to between US$60 million and US$70 million per year.”
The city’s total budget for revenue collection is around US$120 million. Chisango confirmed that, had an effective ERP system been in place, challenges such as irregular refuse collection could have been avoided.
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There are reports that the council rejected a US$350,000 ERP system developed by the Harare Institute of Technology (HIT), opting instead for a more expensive foreign alternative. The council’s decision to bypass the local solution has led residents to believe that senior officials may be exploiting the weaknesses of the manual system for personal gain.
The HIT-developed ERP was designed to address the city’s operational inefficiencies, including improving revenue collection. However, the council pursued a system from a foreign supplier, which was over six times more expensive, and its proposal was blocked by the Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (PRAZ).
HIT criticized the council’s financial management, describing it as a “recipe for disaster” and blamed the lack of a solid ERP system for the city’s operational problems. HIT officials also highlighted that the system they developed had received international recognition and even won an award. It had been invited to Rwanda and the Commonwealth for its innovative design.
The decision to reject the local ERP system has led to considerable financial losses for the city. In one instance, the city attempted to purchase a US$57 million alternative, which was rejected by PRAZ for being excessively priced—over 160 times more expensive than the local solution. The council also faced rejection of a proposed US$2.8 million billing system after procurement regulators found that the city violated legal procedures.
In response to the ongoing issues, the government intervened last month, instructing the city to immediately reconvene the ICT steering committee, which will involve both the council and the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works. The committee will oversee the implementation of a new ERP system.
