R30m for bonuses
. . . but only 3 686 new houses
WHILE the Department of Co-operative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs (Coghsta) in the Province failed to meet a shocking 78 percent of targets that it set itself, performance bonuses of nearly R30 million were still approved.
This is according to Cope’s Juanita Mabilu, who pointed out during Coghsta’s budget debate yesterday, that the R30 million paid out constituted 41 percent of the total performance bonuses paid out by the provincial government in one year.
“In Coghsta, if you perform your tasks efficiently, you will be thrown out on the street. But if you fail to meet your targets, you will be rewarded with a hefty performance bonus. This is not a past legacy issue.
“This a present issue of poor performance being actively rewarded by incompetent management.”
She pointed out that with the money lost to irregular expenditure and luxuries, the department could have built 14 322 houses.
“By comparison, the department constructed only 3 686 houses. Had the department not wasted its money through poor planning and inadequate management, it could have built four times as many houses in just one year.” She added that it was not legacy issues of the past that undermined service delivery but poor planning and poor performance in the present.
“The current administration cannot prioritise service delivery above blind political loyalty. It is a fact that the current administration will make appointments based on political or family connections rather than skills, which causes basic services to collapse.”
Mabilu also pointed out that workers at the Mier Municipality had not received their salaries for more than four months because the money that should go towards salaries has disappeared.
“Across the Province, municipal debt levels remain dangerously high – largely due to the fact that government departments do not pay their rates and taxes.”
Mabilu added that there were currently 22 vacancies in the Province’s 32 municipalities for posts to be filled by competent municipal managers.
“Due to the lack of properly qualified staff, 60 percent of municipalities are not spending their Municipal Infrastructure Grants at all and 72 percent of municipalities don’t implement any form of Local Economic Development.”
She pointed out that the Province was also experiencing an acute shortage of engineers and town planners.
“As a result of this shortage, sewage is running through the streets of poor communities.”
Mabilu added that the Intaka legacy meant clean water remained but pipe dreams for the majority of impoverished communities, while service delivery on a municipal level had collapsed and become non-existent.
“The failure to provide clean water has even caused the deaths of children.” Mabilu also said that the lack of professionalism and skill had caused this department to be the worst performer of all departments when it came to meeting service delivery targets.