With R19 million to spend on grants in the next four months, panic has set in among municipal officials. Makana must use up the remaining 73% of its capital budget by the end of the financial year, or face losing it.
With R19 million to spend on grants in the next four months, panic has set in among municipal officials. Makana must use up the remaining 73% of its capital budget by the end of the financial year, or face losing it.
Driving the move to spend is chairperson of the Finance, Administration, Monitoring and Evaluation (FAME) committee, Piryawaden Ranchhod, who told Grocott's Mail yesterday that the municipality was determined to avoid under-expenditure and roll-overs.
According to the mid-term budget report presented before Council last month, the municipality has spent less than a quarter of their capital budget.
In an interview with Grocott's Mail on Tuesday, acting municipal manager Thembinkosi Myalato confessed Makana had not performed adequately in capital spending terms.
"We have not done well in Capex, but we have a turnaround strategy in place to address that," said Myalato.
He was confident that all the grant funding for the 2012/13 budget would be spent before the end of June.
"We will spend all the grants. There will be no roll-overs, no underspending in the grants," he said.
The municipality has thus far spent R10m of the R29m Municipal Infrastructure Grant, leaving R19m still to spend.
During the finance portfolio committee meeting yesterday, Ranchhod expressed strong concern.
"I have raised this several times last year that the National Treasury is not going to allow roll-overs any more," Ranchhod explained.
With 73% of it capital budget required to be spent in the next four months, councillor Les Reynolds said if the municipality were a private company, they would be bankrupt.
"There seems to be a systematic problem at Finance. We are stuck in mud – we are not moving," he said.
"People must stop making excuses and to the job. We are victims of our own rules and regulations."
Councillor Mabhuti Matyumza said the level of spending in the capital budget affected service-delivery.
"If it is not spent, it means Makana is not delivering services to the community," Matyumza said.
Councillor Nomhle Gaga said in Infrastructure, the non-spending was caused by the finance department not paying suppliers.
"Officials have complained that suppliers are not being paid. There is a problem and we need to remedy the situation," Gaga said.
She said with regards to tenders, the wrong people were appointed and their contracts got terminated; however, because the suppliers weren't paid, there were litigation costs.
"As councillors we are blamed. We look bad to the locals because services are not delivered," Gaga said.
The meeting resolved that by the end of February all suppliers owed money must be paid.
Ranchhod jokingly promised that if directors spent 80% of their budgets before the end of March, he would buy them lunch.
Chief Financial Officer Danny Sahibdeen told the meeting that as much as the finance department had its flaws, they couldn't be blamed for the underspending.
"Directors need to be accountable also," he said.
