Slow city capital spend slated

EXCO councillors expressed their dissatisfaction on Tuesday at the fact that only 81.32% of the budgeted capital expenditure had been spent by the close of the financial year.

They were reacting to the interim financial report tabled for the quarter ended 30 June 2018.

The Mayoral Report that prefaced the agenda item stated capital expenditure at R468.6-million, based on the Adjusted Capital Budget of R571-million, which the mayor deemed ‘not acceptable’ against a level of expenditure projected to have been at 90% (R513-million).

Councillors agreed and put the blame squarely at the feet of officials, for reasons that included the high number of tenders that had been cancelled during the year.

They complained that, in failing to spend the money, the municipality had in fact, failed to deliver services to communities in need.

Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Mxolisi Kunene admitted ‘poor planning’ in the 2017/2018 financial year had been partly to blame, but said this was being corrected.

The low capex spend was just one of a number of financial concerns directed at officials by councillors.

Outstanding government debt, amounting to over R16-million, was deemed ‘out of control’ by Cllr Louis Fourie.

Likewise, outstanding business debts, the top ten of which amounted to R44million, were cause for concern.

The CFO explained that recovering the money was not a simple matter, as a number of the instances were being contested in the High Court.

Excessive monies spent on security were questioned, with Cllr Fourie asking whether this was related to ‘bodyguard’ protection of senior office bearers.

He was reassured this was not the case, and that the extra amounts were associated among others, with guarding of municipal buildings and assets, special events and in reaction to public protests.

The amount of money spent on overtime (R44.5-million) came in for criticism, with calls for staff numbers to increase or extra shifts to be implemented.

Cllr Thami Phahla demanded to know when an overtime report, promised ‘many months ago’, would appear before Exco.

‘We demand that report and we want to know what hidden reason there might be that has delayed it being submitted,’ said Phahla.

However, the CFO pointed out that in fact, the number of overtime hours had decreased from the previous financial year.