Is the JB Marks municipality slowly running out of money?
The amount of money that the municipality has available has decreased by close to 50 per cent from December 2014 to May 2017.
Chris Landsberg, the DA caucus leader, is a very worried man. According to him, the municipality had R342 777 728 available in cash investments in December 2014 but, by May this year, it had dropped to R156 972 402.
Since the financial reports (Section 71) – which must be made available to the public within 10 days after month end – are reportedly three months behind, there is no way of knowing what the municipality’s current financial situation is. Indications are that the figure may even have dropped to as low as R112 000 000.
According to Landsberg, who has been a councillor for 35 years, investments are being used to fund capital projects, among others. ‘This is something that has never been done before. We used to finance capital projects through government grants and income,’ he said.
According to him, the municipality has certain ringfenced cash responsibilities that need to be budgeted for, such as the cleaning up of a landfill site once it has reached capacity. Other expenses include the leave and medical contributions of municipal workers and pensioners.
‘The total of these expenses amounts to about R233 050 725, which means the municipality cannot cover them when they arise,’ he said.
According to him, the water and lights accounts are too often sent out late and the contractors who are responsible for reading the meters have not been paid in months.
‘It is detrimental to the financial security of the municipality if the meters are not read regularly and the accounts are not sent out timeously.
‘We cannot afford this municipal manager anymore – there is no control over the finances and it is hurting the municipality.
As a result of the council only meeting once every three months, we will possibly only know what the financial situation of the municipality is on 28 November,’ he said.
By the time of going to print, the municipality had still not responded to the Herald’s request for comment.
