NELSPRUIT – The DA welcomed the announcement by the Department of Finance last week to allocate R8 million for data cleansing in six municipalities.
The MEC for Finance, Mr Madala Masuku said in the policy and budget speech that the Provincial Treasury would assist six of the identified local municipalities with data cleansing of their billing systems. These are Bushbuckridge, Thaba Chweu, Msukaligwa, Dipaleseng, Dr JS Moroka and Thembisele Hani.
Bushbuckridge was recently placed under administration due to its poor management of its own finances. The municipal manager of Thaba Chweu, Mr Burton Koma, was also recently recalled.
According to Mr Jonas Letshela, communications director of the department, it intends to support the municipalities in terms of budgeting, auditing, billing systems and related governance prescripts.
“The selection of the six municipalities is informed by, among others, the revenue collection rate, financial constraints of the identified municipalities and the available budget resources for the current financial year,” he said.
Mr Anthony Benadie, the DA’s provincial leader, said he was happy with the announcement because data cleansing would go a long way to addressing certain aspects of the problem areas. These were identified as supply-chain and human-resource management, quality of service- delivery reports, quality of submitted financial statements, and IT controls.
“We hope this will pave the way for improved municipal finance management and revenue collection across the province,” he said. “Revenue streams will be increased as debtors are trace. Assets will be identified and accounted for and hopefully supply chain management and procurement procedures will become more transparent. We are certain that the decision was taken in the light of Mpumalanga municipalities’ dismal 2011/12 audit reports.”
Only two municipalities obtained clean audits, with five receiving unqualified opinions, seven qualified, five disclaimers and two submitting after the deadline. The DA hoped that, should the data cleansing prove successful, it should be extended to other municipalities.
“Considering local municipalities’ notorious reputation for fruitless, unnecessary and wasteful expenditure, the DA hopes that MEC Masuku and the provincial treasury will have the necessary checks and balances in place,” Benadie said.
