Chitungwiza Municipality will soon recruit a legal officer in a move that is expected to cut costs as the local authority has been outsourcing legal services for the past three years. Currently, Chitungwiza, which owes its lawyers Matsikidze and Mucheche Legal Practitioners, a staggering $165 000 in legal fees, is paying $10 000 monthly to retire the debt. Chitungwiza's chamber secretary, Mrs Charity Maunga, who is doubling as the Acting Town Clerk, said outsourcing legal advice has been a drain on council resources.
"We are facing many legal cases at the moment and we are outsourcing those," said Mrs Maunga. "This post has always been there on the organogram, but since April 2015, there was no internal legal team both from the chamber secretary and any other departments up until I joined council early this year. The unavailability of such a person has a devastating effect since it is risky to any organisation because some decisions can be made without looking at the external legal issues.
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