OFFICIALS at the City of uMhlathuze again came under severe flak on Tuesday for a ‘fat’ financial rollover from the previous year that has not been spent.
At the close of the financial year, the City’s capital expenditure stood at a dismal 29% amounting to R135.4-million.
With orders that have been placed totalling R69-million but would only be paid the following month, the revised capital as at 30 April stood at 44% (R204,4-million).
More shocking was the 0% spend on the R83.6-million Municipal Infrastructure Grant (MIG). Adding further insult to injury was a rollover of MIG funding from the previous year where only R44-million had been spent out of R64.7-million.
‘This is deeply alarming. We come to the close of another financial year and we still have a rollover from the previous financial year,’ said Cllr Beena Simmadhri.
‘At the end of the day, the Municipal Manager is in charge of all tenders. We have the funds but we obviously lack the capital to spend it. We need to spend the money on proper infrastructure and not the frills.
‘We owe it to the community out there for services to be provided. They want value for money. Rates are collected but we forget about the poor. Justice is not being done for the community,’ said Simmadhri.
City Mayor Elphas Mbatha said the tender evaluation process was far too long with no specific time frames.
‘We are concerned about capital spend as this is sending a very bad message to the national and provincial government as well as the community if we fail to spend again in the new budget.
‘ We cannot wait for the new budget. This must be addressed now.
‘We did identify gaps in the processes including the fact that it could take months for tenders to be allocated following the opening of tender boxes. This process has to be fast-tracked,’ Mbatha said.
