Accountability to ratepayers of importance

IN OUR March meeting of the council we dealt with the obligation to amend the 2017 to 2022 IDP in terms of section 34 of the Municipal Systems Act. We had to update the Medium-Term Revenue & Expenditure Framework and bring it in line with the mid-year adjustment budget approved on January 31 this year.

I raised my concerns at the meeting about many departments reporting that they had not advanced their spending programmes fast enough up to that time. The still-to-do-portion remained a hope still to be realised. I found this very worrying. Under circumstances where money is not available it is understandable for departments to lag behind with infrastructure development. However, where budget is already available, it is inexcusable for a department not to be ahead of the curve. Furthermore it raises public ire to suggest tariff increases when what is in hand remains unspent.

If the mayor had sent a letter to the mayco upbraiding the executive for a budget spend shortfall, as reported in yesterday’s Argus, and her facts are correct, we must all be concerned.

Accountability is very important in a constitutional democracy. Mayco must therefore account to the residents of the city regarding the true state of expenditure without any attempt to paint a rosy picture when the facts point otherwise.

Sadly, if there is any delay in pushing ahead with capital projects, it will add to costs because of inflationary and tax pressures.

This matter concerns all of us and we need to know the full truth.