Maputo, 15 May (AIM) – Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi has encouraged the top representatives of the 53 existing municipalities in the country to work harder and produce innovative solutions to improve the sustainability of the municipalities, which currently generate less than 40 percent of their budget.
“Data in our possession indicate that most local authorities in Mozambique are unable to cover even 40 percent of their budgets with their own revenues, so they function solely at the cost of budgetary transfers from the State”, Nyusi said on Monday, at the opening of the 12th Meeting of Municipalities, a two-day event being held in the city of Quelimane, capital of the central province of Zambézia.
According to the president, when the municipalities were created it was expected that they would operate with their own revenues, collected within their jurisdiction.
“Unfortunately, the current reality shows the opposite”, he admitted. “It is urgent to find innovative solutions to increase revenue so that the municipalities gradually become sustainable”.
Nyusi warned that the increase in revenue should be done gradually, avoiding suffocating citizens, and avoiding a sudden increase in fees.
Nyusi also addressed the need for municipalities to design exemplary growth models, taking into account internal experiences, through the sharing of good practices among municipalities, as well as with international counterparts.
He explained that this could be one of the best ways to improve the management of municipalities, because tertiarization allows the passage of some responsibilities to the private sector.
He warned, however, that this must be done through transparent and corruption-free processes.
“We would like to call the attention of the mayors who have governed unblemished during the last five years not to fall into the temptation of corruption. If you make this mistake you run the risk of sinking close to the shore, ending up in the dock and compromising all the good work that you have done over the past five years”, he said.
Nyusi also called on the mayors to pay more attention to the circulation of “dirty money” in the areas under their management, calling for collaboration with the government in the fight against money laundering.
(AIM)
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