Letter: For the want of a nail… the castle was lost

Ward 22 Cllr Privi Makhan writes:

Consequence management, accountability, poor planning – this lexicon appears to be the most utilized in the local government space.

This Monday, the Salt Rock licencing office remained closed due to the building being without a cleaner.

Now for anyone who has had the displeasure of visiting the building, you will agree that a cleaner is probably trivial when compared to the actual state of a service delivery building.

The budget allocation of R1.5 million to repair the now derelict building, will most likely roll over to a new financial year, for the second year in a row, due to municipal supply chain processes still being underway.

But back to the cleaner: The cleaner for the Salt Rock municipal offices is sourced through the Expanded Public Works programme, who are usually on a 6 to 12 month contract.

The department responsible was fully aware that the contractual obligation of the cleaner would end on April 30. Due to poor planning and administrative failures, a service delivery function remained closed to the public.

In these tough economic times, the effective implementation of revenue generation policies are imperative.

With departments failing to ensure that service delivery and revenue generation services remain uninterrupted, the question that begs to be asked, how seriously is service delivery being taken?