According to DA councillors on the Finance Oversight committee in Ekurhuleni, Estelle Visser, Ramesh Sheodin and Bruce Reid, it is inexcusable that in an environment marked by service delivery protests that the ruling party in Ekurhuleni is failing to spend what it’s got and in some cases, is looking a gift- horse in the mouth.
By way of example, the DA cite the following shortcomings in the fiscal management of the metro:
* While the metro is plagued by power outages, often a direct consequence of old infrastructure and poor maintenance, the metro failed to spend almost R300-million of its maintenance budget.
* The Roads Department failed to spend R85-m of its budget, despite major potholes and whole roads needing to be resurfaced.
* The disappointing collection rate of only 90 per cent of municipal tariffs means a further loss of R2.6-billion.
* In the face of desperate poverty, bad debt provision has increased by R94-m, with the metro expecting its own ability to collect debt to be worse than ever before.
* The Finance Department only spent R90-m out of a possible R141-m on contracted services.
* The inability of the metro to contain illegal connections has caused part of the loss of R895-m in the under selling of electricity.
* A further R217-m is owed to the metro by other organs of state.
* The metro has only has only spent 70.34 per cent of its capital expenditure budget. – @IschkeBoksburg
