POLOKWANE – Figures contained in the Polokwane Municipality’s financial report for the period July 1 to September 30, that was debated during a recent council meeting, indicated that the municipality has performed adequately in some areas, while other areas painted a bleak picture.
Debtors owe the municipality in excess of R1.8b and the fact that 65% of the debts are older than one year, raises a concern that has to be addressed by the municipality’s chief financial officer, Nazeem Essa with the support of council.
According to the report, households owed just short of R1.3b, commercial clients R396m and organs of state R133m, representing 71%, 23% and 7% respectively and it appears that the municipality does not enforce its credit control policy to the required level to contain the debt book that increases by approximately R2m every year.
According to the report, there was a decline in the income for sales of electricity, attributed to the use of alternative energy sources, load-shedding and a decrease in bulk purchasing.
Water revenue was down with 24% and the blame was placed on faulty meters that were not replaced timeously, as well as the malfunctioning of prepaid meters.
Three councillors owe the municipality a sum of R160 592 and officials are R853 206 in arrears and no acceptable reason was offered for this situation.
Indigent support cost the municipality R4.1m only for the month of September.
In terms of revenue, the municipality received R1.189b, representing 23% of the budgeted R5.1b, while the operational expenditure amounted to R867m, being 21% of the budgeted R4.2b.
Capital expenditure amounted to R52m, only 5% of the budget of R974m.
The municipality owed creditors R142m and the Development Bank of South Africa R192m and Standard Bank R191m on outstanding loans, while it had a positive bank balance of R2.7m.
The grants account balance was R168m and some of the funds were invested to earn interest until needed.
Amounts of R28m and R37m were invested at Nedbank and earned interest of R44 493 and R65 688 respectively, while an investment of R180m at Standard Bank earned interest amounting to R384 658.
Remuneration of political office bearers cost the municipality R10.9m, while senior managers earned R2.9m and other officials R257.4m.
Overtime payments took a huge chunk off the budget with R22.3m spent in the first three months of the financial year, already representing 120% of the budgeted amount.
