Municipalities owed more than R194 billion in unpaid service fees, says SALGA
A delegation of the SALGA national executive council has been in Durban for two days of meetings with city officials to discuss matters relating to local government.
MORE than R194 billion is owed to municipalities in unpaid service fees. This is due to municipalities offering services they cannot afford to pay for, said Thembi Nkadimeng, Chief Executive Officer of the South African Local Government Association (SALGA).
ALSO READ: eThekwini irregular spending balloons to R2billion
Nkadimeng said 40 per cent of the R194 billion is ‘uncollectable’ debt. “A municipaality that does not have revenue, cannot deliver services,” she said.
“It is evident there is a clear link between the ability of a municipality to service its debt, including that to Eskom and water boards; and the inablity of a municipality to collect from government, business and households for services delivered.”
A delegation of the SALGA national executive council has been in Durban for two days of meetings with city officials to discuss matters relating to local government.
While eThekwini does not form part of the the 10 KZN municipalities under administration, it did receive a damning audit report regarding irregular expenditure and supply chain management (SCM) processes which fall under Section 32 and Section 36 of the Municipal Act and deal with procurement.
Xolile George, Chief Operating Officer of SALGA, said the city has told him they have significantly reduced their use of Section 36.
Section 32 is a policy that allows for a municipality to forego public tender bids in cases of emerencies. In the auditor’s report presented to council last month, the auditor found that the city used S36 in cases where there was no need to.
“We do hope with the capacitation they have done, will place them in a beter position and not have the auditor-general flag that (they) have a huge appetie for section 32 or 36,” said George.
SALGA also announced the launch of its new application, Salga Mobi App which has four main features: incidence reporting, social unrest risk scale, municipal barometer and the SALGA website.
The application is available for download on all play stores.
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