National Treasury has withdrawn R18,8 million Municipal Infrastructure Grants (MIG funding) from Mogale City Local Municipality.
Strict conditions guide the use of MIG funds by a municipality, especially the administration and management of the MIG programme.
“The funds have been recalled by Treasury because the ANC-controlled municipality has not complied with these MIG conditions and failed to plan the timeous spending of the MIG grants,” reads the statement the DA had sent to the news.
MIG is one of the biggest capital projects worldwide but is regulated by clear conditions of use. Government transfers infrastructure grants to municipalities for capital projects to provide South Africans with basic services.
Local Government is the sphere of government closest to the people. National and Provincial Government support municipalities to accelerate service delivery at a local level by means of a suite of municipal grant funding.
“We concede that municipalities have limited revenue-raising powers,” said Mogale City’s DA Infrastructure portfolio spokesperson, councillor Lynn Pannall, “but it is very disheartening to see funds, allocated to address the basic service delivery needs of our communities and to maximise job creation, withdrawn due to our municipality’s inability to utilise these grants according to the prescribed format or the prescribed time. The municipality’s incapacity to make use of these funds is disgraceful and borders on criminal negligence.”
Between 2006 and 2009 all municipalities spent 100 per cent of MIG funds.
“We are going backwards,” said Pannall.
The retraction of R18 million MIG funding by Government was announced at the February Council meeting.
“The DA undertakes to sharpen its oversight role of MIG funding and to continue holding the municipality to account. It has referred the matter to the Municipal Public Accounts Committee; the community will receive feedback in the media. We will interrogate the infrastructure projects put on hold in our portfolio. This must never, never happen again.”
