Portfolio councillors of the Budget, Treasury and IDP (BTI) committee have expressed their frustrations
that the BTI meetings are not being taken seriously enough. This is indicated by the way some councillors often don’t attend meetings.
Portfolio councillors of the Budget, Treasury and IDP (BTI) committee have expressed their frustrations
that the BTI meetings are not being taken seriously enough. This is indicated by the way some councillors often don’t attend meetings.
A BTI meeting scheduled for Thursday last week was postponed due to the lack of a quorum. An agreement was reached to postpone the meeting as the councillors who were present said the meeting should be called off after waiting 15 minutes for the absent councillors.
Committee chairperson, Ntsikelelo Stamper walked into the council chamber about 20 minutes late while, at the same time, some councillors were leaving. Before they departed, ANC Councillor Thandeka Veliti
proposed that the Chief Financial Officer, Jackson Ngcelwane submit a report to the Municipal Manager’s office on why the BTI did not sit for the meeting.
Democratic Alliance councillor, Les Reynolds also said that the mayor and the municipal manager – who are responsible for the finances of the Council seldom attend the meetings.
The meeting was rescheduled for Monday this week, but failed to take place in the council chamber as usual as it was booked up.
ANC Councillor Thandeka Veliti commented on why the venue was not checked before the meeting was confirmed to take place. She also queried the status of the report which should be submitted to the municipal manager.
“I don’t know if the CFO [Chief Financial Officer] has given the report to the Municipal Manager and it is the second time today the chairperson is not here without any apology.
I am having problems with that,” she said. Veliti added that this directorate is one of the key directorates in the institution and must therefore be taken very seriously.
Reynolds said, “When it comes to the LHID [Land, Housing, Infrastructural Development and Disaster Management Portfolio Committee] meetings, the whole council chamber is full, there’s people sitting all over, everybody wants houses and roads,” he said.
Reynolds added that when it comes to resolving these matters, there is a lack of presence at BTI committee meetings which is where the decisions are made on how to run the council financially.
He does not know how to get this across to his fellow councillors and everyone else who is involved. “We cannot discuss finance when the directors who actually spend the money and make reports are not here. So I agree with Councillor Veliti, things are a little bit shambollock at the moment.”
Veliti proposed that the mayor must be provided with the report she previously proposed as well as seconding Reynold's proposal that the municipal manager and mayor should participate in the meetings as they are the key stakeholders in running the institution.
