Chimoio — The mayors of Mozambique's 65 municipalities are worried at the scarcity of the money needed to repair access roads, and the late disbursement of what little money does exist.
In previous years, the central government, via the Road Fund, used to disburse money for the repair and improvement of municipal access roads.
But this year, out of a total of 706.4 million meticais (about 11 million US dollars, at the current exchange rate) budgeted for all 65 municipalities, only 240.3 million meticais have been disbursed. The funds vary between seven million meticais for a town to 26 million meticais for a Category A city.
But these funds are regarded as insignificant, particularly given the delays in disbursing them, which is compromising maintenance work on the access roads.
Speaking on Monday at a meeting of the National Association of Municipalities (ANAMM), its chairperson, the Mayor of Chimoio, Joao Ferreira, called on the government to speed up the provision of the funds, so that the municipalities can carry out the activities they have planned
"The sum of seven or13 million meticais is a lot for an individual, he said, "but for a municipality it's nothing'.
"The municipal citizens want to see results', Ferreira stressed. "They want to see what we promised during the election campaign. When there are delays in the money reaching the municipal coffers, the public doesn't understand the procedures for disbursements. They just want results and compliance with the promises that we made'.
In the southern city of Maxixe, for example, "we have building works that are stopped and finishing them depends on the Roads Fund'.
"Sometimes the contractor has done 30 or 40 per cent of the job, but the State can only release the money when the job is finished', said Maxixe mayor, Hélder Namburete.
"The situation with the roads is complicated', said Shafee Sidat, mayor of Marracuene, in Maputo province. He was annoyed that no high level Road Fund officials were attending the meeting.
"We can't discuss this with somebody of provincial level', declared Sidat. "The matter is very serious, and we cannot be compromised because of the promises we made to the public and which should be honoured'.
The Road Fund representative for Manica province, Robat Jane, recognized that the problem requires high level intervention and promised to channel this concern to his superiors.
