Last Thursday’s Council meeting brought with it more of the continuous back and forth between councillors and officials.
The gallery was packed and security was tight, for what was dubbed ‘a meeting under radical circumstances’.
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It began with a look into the municipality’s Annual Performance Report, which in general was taken to indicate AbaQulusi’s financial woes are far from over.
Tabling the report before Council, audit committee chairperson, L.B. van der Merwe pointed out the municipality’s debtors balance was continuing to increase and this was posing a serious threat to the municipality’s collection rate, which presently sits at more than R204-million.
It was also noted the rate at which the municipality was working on paying its creditors has only shown progress of 0,09 per cent from the end of February 2019 to the end of August 2019.
At present, the municipality owes its creditors more than R83-million.
Van der Merwe suggested the municipality look into maximising revenue income through an urgent audit of the completeness of revenue on the ground.
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“Are we satisfied that water and electricity meters are legally connected, working properly and being billed by treasury monthly?” he asked.
Some suggestions were offered such as arranging payments for all large debtors, offering discounts on traffic fines paid in full before the end of the year and approaching the Premier’s office to resolve ongoing legal wrangles.
Other cost-cutting measures mentioned by van der Merwe included minimising expenditure (through cutting expenses in all departments), reducing overtime to absolute essential services, reducing subsistence and travel amounts and postponing seminars and non-essential courses.
The matter of councillors not attending meetings was also brought forward.
Read more in today’s Vryheid Herald.
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