NELSPRUIT – The department of finance confirmed that only R3 million has been made available to conduct data cleansing in six municipalities.
It was recently reported that R8 million would be made available to Bushbuckridge, Thaba Chweu, Msukaligwa, Dipaleseng, Dr JS Moroka and Thembisele Hani municipalities. However, in response to written questions from Mr Anthony Benadie, the provincial leader of the DA, the department said only R3 million has been committed to perform data cleansing.
This comes after it was revealed during a presentation to the extended portfolio committee on the 2013/14 budget in June, that R5 million had been allocated from national treasury to support the municipal financial management act while R3 million was prioritised for the data cleansing.
According to Mr Madala Masuku, MEC of finance, the money is meant to aid the municipalities in their ability to collect revenue and budget for projects. In Masuku’s response to the DA, he said that the data cleansing would be outsourced. The open tender process is currently underway. He also said that the department expected the implementation of the project to take four months. It will include a gap analysis, the reconciliation of data, the detection of duplicate accounts, analysis of inactive accounts and meter audits.
Benaddie welcomed the intitiative. “The DA believes that, if implemented correctly, this project could put municipalities on the right track towards revenue collection, thus improving their financial viability and sustainability,” he said. “This, coupled with effective financial management, can improve service delivery and avoid the costly nature of putting councils under administration.”
