Harare Mayor Bernard Manyenyeni has revealed that the Harare City Council (HCC) spent at least $50 000 to interview and hire prospective candidates of the post of town clerk. The money was reportedly paid to private human resources consultants. However, the post still remains vacant after disputes between HCC and the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing. The government has since ordered the HCC to restart the process to hire another Town Clerk.
Said Manyenyeni,
Yes, we used a lot of money for this process. To advertise, get consultants, who do the selection process, as well as administrative issues.
Harare Residents’ Trust (HRT) coordinator, Precious Shumba was not amused saying,
As an organisation, our long-held view is that the political leader in the MDC-T and their councillors in the human resources and general purposes committee should not interfere too much in the whole process of recruiting the next town clerk.
This is criminal abuse of office, it amounts to corruption and undermines the whole recruitment process. This is the reason the HRT demands that the recruitment process be depoliticised to allow for the recruitment of the best-positioned candidate.
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