Kgatleng District Council calls for budget re-alignment
Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Monday October 2, 2023 06:00
Molokwe told the full council session this week that they did not have adequate funds to attend to all developmental needs for the district. He said it was critical to re-strategise in order to urgently attend to the most pressing areas.
He singled out dilapidated roads and buildings as the areas of concern. “There is more that needs to be done regarding service delivery in the midst of financial challenges. [[Shortage and breakdown of critical resources such as fleet with inadequate funding to meet maintenance needs worsen project implementation challenges and the ability of personnel to provide timely services to the community,” he revealed.]] Molokwe added that they have to come up with ways of delivering more with less.
“Provision of social services is critical therefore we need to ensure undisrupted services to those who need support and assistance,” he emphasised. He said the state of the roads and buildings should also be of critical concern and this calls for a review of the budget. With that regard, Molokwe indicated there is a need to shift available financial resources to critical areas.
“Until and unless the financial status stabilises, we need to make bold, informed and rational decisions on what activities need to halt and re-schedule to the next financial year,” he added.
He said there is a need to channel funds to immediate pressing community needs. Molokwe continued: “I cannot overemphasise the need for departments to raise their own income, especially council as we have budgeted our own source income. We challenge you to use structures such as council committees to scrutinise your different committee budgets not only to monitor progress but to account for own source income generation in your respective votes,” he further told the council.
Molokwe said as a council they need to make sure they pay all their creditors and ensure that they collect all finances owed to them. He said the community must also step up and clear the P43.5 million owed to Water Utilities Corporation (WUC) as these funds are in turn used to address water supply challenges faced by the community. Molokwe, however, said this calls for a change in even the way they have been carrying out financial transactions. Molokwe said he hopes all people are readying themselves for discontinuation of the issuance of cheques by ensuring that they use technology-enabled communication gadgets as most payments will be made electronically.
“I must commend all departments who have fully embraced digitalisation by paying clients through easier and faster modes like My Zaka, Orange Money and Smega amongst other electronic payment channels,” he said. He said change done on one end while leavinh behind other critical stakeholders only results in challenges, some of which are costly.
Molokwe also urged the community to do their part and ensure that they provide the right contact numbers and to stick to the numbers they avail for payments. On other issues, he disclosed that they have had challenges in programmes such as Ipelegeng where payments cannot be made due to wrong or inactive cellphone numbers. He said mistakes in recording beneficiary numbers, especially by supervisors of the the Village Development Committee (VDC), have led to funds being credited to wrong numbers and this on its own creates challenges of tracing and recovering the funds. Still on financial issues, Molokwe said the council has not paid the Village Development Committee (VDC) their increment funds for five months from April 2023 – August2023. He said they therefore accumulated a total of P70,000 in arrears due to shortfalls in the budget. He revealed that due to these financial challenges, amongst other activities, the 2023 Mr and Miss RADP Fashion Show will not be held. Molokwe further said they will be hosting independence celebrations in their village dikgotla next week but they must not expect any grants for celebrations from council as the budget is extremely overstretched. While on social services issues, he said the council managed to deliver 3,480 registered clients as of August 2023.
Therefore, this comprises of 1,524 destitute persons, 982 needy students, 787 orphans, 32 Community Home-based Care patients and 155 children in need of protection. He said there is need to make sure that all council departments actually generate own source of income as planned in their budget. Molokwe added that it is clear that the district’s needs far exceed what government is able to give them as a Revenue Support Grant.
“Social Services is key to our existence as councils and so far Kgatleng is experiencing challenges in delivering timely and adequate social services due to a shortage of funds,” he said. He further pointed out that it is a concern that services to vulnerable groups are hard hit as evidenced by the depletion of funds to pay overtime allowances to critical staff like Khurutshe RADs Hostel staff. He said as of August 31, 2023, expenditure was P77.9 million against the target expenditure of P70.8 million which indicates an over expenditure of more than P7 million.