Harare prejudiced by parking marshals

THE City of Harare (CoH) is losing thousands of dollars to corrupt parking marshals who are demanding bribes from traffic offenders, an audit has revealed. An internal audit commissioned by the city’s audit committee unearthed rampant corruption in the Traffic Enforcement and Parking divisions whereby employees are demanding bribes from traffic offenders. This follows the committee’s failure to meet its revenue targets.

Last year, City Parking collected US$479 000, a figure could significantly improve if the corruption is stopped. Stung by the massive extent of the vice, the committee has since recommended a complete overhaul of the system. According to the report, officials were releasing vehicles clamped for violating municipal bylaws without paying (fines).

In order to conceal the crime, the officials were not keeping a register of the clamped vehicles. “It has been established that corruption exists in the release of clamped vehicles. Twenty-five percent (21 out of 86) of clamped vehicles for the period under review (October – December last year) were released without paying (fines). Minimum controls to deter or detect corruption were not being complied with whilst the design of some of the systems were not adequate,” reads part of the report.

The committee criticised a resolution passed by council in December 2013. The resolution had the effect of compelling City Parking to work together with Traffic Enforcement. In terms of the From arrangement, City Parking was charged with the responsibility of collecting parking fees and ticketing offenders while the latter was responsible for clamping, unclamping and towing illegally parked cars.

However, the report says, the system was not being adhered to. “The same parking marshal who does the clamping also unclamps the vehicle or the sergeant (the team leader) does the unclamping, hence there is no segregation of duty. This has also created an uneasy relationship between the two entities (City Parking and Traffic Enforcement) on roles each should play thereby impacting negatively on enforcement of traffic by-laws and collection of revenue for both entities,” the report further reads.

The committee recommended that the Traffic Enforcement division should be given the exclusive mandate to collect parking fees and clamp vehicles while City Parking should only be responsible for unclamping the cars and issuing tickets. The committee also urged council to enforce compliance by among other things maintaining a clamping register which identifies the officer who clamped the vehicle, the details of the car, the location where it was clamped and the time and date of clamping.

The report also recommended that council gazettes an emergency by-law to enable it to ticket and impound vehicles in arrears for on-street parking fees while management should work around the legal and operational huddles arising from the entrance of other players in the clamping of vehicles apart from Harare Traffic enforcement.

Harare residents have recently been up in arms with the local authority, criticising it for acting in a manner that clearly betrays its penchant to raise money for its bloated and high-earning executives despite the consequences to residents who have to live with miserable service delivery. —Staff Reporter

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