On the right track

RESTRUCTURING and integrating the City of Joburg’s entities such as Pikitup, City Power, Johannesburg Water and others could save the city R18 million in salaries of non-executive board members.

These entities are semi-autonomous, so with the city regaining control of their operations, service delivery could be fast-tracked, first because the city will play an oversight role in what needs to be done and where, and second because the money saved could be used to deliver services to residents.

While feasibility studies are yet to be conducted and residents consulted, we believe this is a move in the right direction, particularly following last week’s shocking announcements that the city, under the ANC administration, incurred a staggering R3.4 billion of previously unreported irregular expenditure, with R700 million incurred in the last financial year alone.

The Auditor-General’s 2015/16 annual financial statements tabled last week indicated that only four of the city’s 15 entities received clean audits in the past financial year.

We hope the new system, if it goes through, will ensure that stringent measures are put in place to guard against wasteful expenditure and corruption, which rob residents of their constitutional rights to services.