Lilongwe City Council this week, sent 92 revenue collectors on force leave in a bid to pave the way for monetary investigations that will assist in establishing the benchmark for revenue collection.
According to a memo, which is signed by the City’s Acting Chief Executive Officer, Charles Makanga, the revenue collectors will be on paid leave ?until November 1, 2017?.
“The Council has resolved to send you to paid leave for three months starting ?from 1st August to 31st October, 2017?,” the memo reads.
The memo further points out that the decision follows the meeting that held ?on May, 22nd? and July 13th 2017.
“This is to review the performance of markets and establish appropriate revenue targets for all the markets. Handover all properties belonging to the Council by 31st July, 2017 to your Head of Directorate,” reads the memo in part.
Confirming the matter in a telephone interview, Makanga said the resolution came after Council realized that the number of vendors does not equal with revenue collected.
“An independent team researched nine months ago, noted amount of money we got during that exercise distantly mismatches with what we now receive,” he said.
He admitted that the Council fails to deliver standard services due to financial challenges.
“The public complains of Lilongwe City Council failing to give them good services. It is true, and it’s because there are not enough finances to meet such demands,” Makanga said.
He added that after the exercise, the revenue collectors will be called back to discuss with them some issues based on the findings of this exercise.
“They are our employees and we cannot do our explorations whilst they are on duty,” he said.
However, the chairman for the concerned revenue collectors, Samuel Elias said the move has raised a lot of suspicions; they will therefore will hold a meeting ?on Friday, August 4, 2017? to explore options on actions they could take.
“There was no communication prior to the letters. Surprisingly, we have not been given any leave grants for the indicated period, and there was no formal handover,” Elias said.
“Already, 92 of us met on August 1, 2017 and we resolved to pursue the matter further. We are currently consulting legal counsel for direction,” he said.
According to Elias, some of the revenue collectors have worked with LCC for periods ranging from thirty to fifty years.