R1m of CHDM’s debt owed by its employees

Revenue collection at about 17.9%, council informed

Of the R1.8bn of debt owed to the Chris Hani District Municipality, about R1m is owed by municipal employees and councillors. This emerged at a virtual ordinary council meeting on Wednesday.

The meeting also heard that the performance audit committee was struggling to confirm whether the debt was collectable.

Committee chair Ananiah Mangisi Langa said the issue of outstanding debtors, including the estimated R1m owed by municipal employees, was a serious concern.

“We urge that the prescript of the code of conduct for employees needs to be looked at.

“Councillors owe about R60,000 and we note that some of the councillors had not even made arrangements to settle these amounts. Council needs to act in this regard.”

Langa said though there were projects aimed at attempting to deal with the matter, the municipality was not making a dent with regard to the outstanding debtors.

“A whole R1.8bn is lying in the hands of debtors.

“It does appear that some of this debt we are struggling to confirm is collectable. It will be important that we really, as a matter of urgency, act on it.”

He also highlighted the importance of the revenue management report, adding that the revenue collection rate was about 17.9%.

“If we can do well in this area we will be sustainable without grants. We continuously want to receive this report so we can interact with it. We note that the debt rehabilitation programme has been extended to the end of the year.”

Councillor Mcebisi Limba said revenue collection should be at the top of council’s priority list.

“We are not putting enough effort into revenue collection. Without that money there will not be any service delivery.

“If, within the institution, there are employees who cannot assist in this matter, we can get people from the private sector to strategise with the institution,” Limba said.

Councillor Aloisious Alexander, however, said there were departments within government that could assist.

“I would suggest we call a meeting with relevant departments in government to help us with this.

“We do not need an outside organisation to assist us with revenue collection. I think this is an easy task because there are people out there who are willing to pay.

“We just need to get the systems running, the billings and the accounts up to date,” Alexander said.

Observing the fourth quarter performance report, Langa said basic service delivery and infrastructure development was not doing well, urging management and council to focus on this.

He said council needed to look at a turnaround strategy for the engineering department.

“It is a major contributing department that makes the performance go down.”

On a positive note, Langa said the cash flow position of the municipality was improving and the progress report on the implementation of the audit action plan was proceeding well.

Looking at the post audit action plan, he said there were concerns that resolved issues were only at 4%, while the district municipality was already at the end of the financial year. This was after the municipality had received a disclaimer of opinion from the auditor general.

“We noted with appreciation that a lot of work has been done and we are urging that even in the 87% that is partially resolved, we need to be able to show evidence that we have moved in that regard. Unless we do so, the office of the auditor general may not regard that 87%.”

Langa added: “We appreciate that the district municipality held an investment summit in which there were commitments from some potential investors.”

He said critical issues identified by the finance minister during the summit needed to be addressed.