MAYORS, officials and councils have received a stern word of warning from KZN Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) MEC Nomusa Dube-Ncube to cease any excessive spending.
Speaking at the Institute for Municipal Finance Officials conference on Monday in Durban, Dube-Ncube cautioned representatives of municipalities from across the province against irregular and fruitless expenditure as new councils begin their work to bring services to communities.
‘Since the core function of municipalities as enshrined in the constitution of our country is to bring key services to residents, failure to do such is a clear violation and renders them of no use.
‘This is why as a department we have a zero tolerance approach to any financial impropriety in municipalities across KZN.
‘We have previously intervened in municipalities through section 139 of the constitution where we have seen service delivery grind to a halt, because of financial mismanagement.
‘Many municipalities in the country find themselves in financial distress and there are a number of contributing factors ranging from negative cash balances; overspending of operating budgets; and under spending of capital budgets as well as the high number of both creditors and debtors.
‘Unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure and socio-economic factors are also impacting on the viability of municipalities.’
She added consistent urbanisation needs to be bargained for.
‘More and more people are shifting into urban centres, in anticipation of better opportunities including employment and education.’
Municipal business
Dube-Ncube asserted local government should be strictly run as a business.
‘All municipalities must adhere to the cost-curtailment measures and all councils must adopt resolutions on them.
‘It cannot be that the first thing councillors do within a month of being appointed is that you buy yourself a new car.
‘The important thing we need to know is that municipalities do not exist for their own sake, but they exist to fulfil a particular purpose – to service communities of that particular locality.
‘Accounting officers must be sensitive to the public purse by prioritising expenditure that will make an impact where it matters most in improving the lives of our people.
‘In these difficult times where all of us are being forced to stretch our rand to make do with little, we cannot have a situation where staff members are staying in expensive hotels, while existence for many of our people is a daily struggle to keep afloat.
‘We cannot have a situation where staff members are accumulating high bills on subsistence and travel even in distances where people can drive and come back in one day.
‘Let us run municipalities as businesses and eliminate ‘nice to have’ costs.’
HAVE YOUR SAY
Like our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter.
For news straight to your phone invite us:
WhatsApp – 072 069 4169
Instagram – zululand_observer
