Harare cries foul over parking dividend

By Helen Kadirire

Harare City Council (HCC) wants City Parking to increase their dividend to the city arguing the current remittance is too little.

According to audit committee minutes, HCC claims that City Parking has been paying them a blanket figure of $40 000 per year.

“The committee enquired whether the Harare City Council was getting a fair share from City Parking (Pvt) Ltd. The acting town clerk reported that she had taken the matter to the business committee whereby the entity should pay rentals for the offices as well as electricity charges.

“The unit should also pay a dividend that would be properly calculated not just a blanket figure of $40 000,” read the minutes.

Harare mayor Bernard Manyenyeni said the chairperson of Harare Sunshine Holdings should know what is going on at the entity because “we are not involved in the day-to-day activities.”

“A special forensic audit was called for by the board of HSH but we did not cause and will not.

“The complaint of the low figure is typical shareholder expectations on our part. All other audits have taken place except for the special audit which I cannot answer for,” Manyenyeni said.

HSH chairperson Percy Toriro also declined to comment on the City Parking issue, arguing that it was a stand-alone company which had a board of its own.

“Before the companies branched out, I would speak for them but now I cannot because they would deem it as interference. Those at City Parking are the best people to speak to,” Toriro said.

City Parking general manager Simon Muzviyo had not responded to questions sent to him by the time of going to print.

Complaints against City Parking come after Local Government minister Saviour Kasukuwere told Parliament that there are financial leakages at the entity.

Kasukuwere said a lot of money was being paid towards parking in the city.

However, the funds were not being accounted for.

When the parking project was first started in 2010, HCC had contracted South African firm Easipark to manage the business, with investments also in Ghana that paid out a $40 000 monthly dividend.

“There is an issue regarding the Sunshine City. We wanted the parking space in Harare to be audited. No one knows how much money is being paid.

“Hospitals and clinics are paying but it is not known where the money is going.

“There are some companies or boards that are in Ghana but the revenue that is raised is unaccounted for.”

“If you touch on such issues, it will appear as if you are stirring the hornet’s nest, but this is the truth of the matter.

“The leaders that are in council even tell you that minister this issue is difficult. We do not know whether it ends with the leaders of the council or the party. There are leakages in terms of finances,” Kasukuwere said. Daily News