Political parties comment on local municipalities’ grant underspending

The DA in the City of uMhlathuze says it will not support the allocation of performance bonuses for senior officials amid underspending of critical budgets to the tune of millions.

This after the city was last week hit by National Treasury for returning R23.5m in conditional grants meant for the Water Services Infrastructure Grant (WSIG), Integrated National Electrification Programme (INEP), and the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP).

ALSO READ: Service setback for public as local municipalities underspend grants

DA councillor in uMhlathuze, Christo Botha said they have persistently raised the issue of grant funding, and the affected departments acknowledged they were communicating with the relevant national government departments.

“Nevertheless, they failed to convince Treasury of the reasons for non-compliance, which is a disconcerting development,” said Botha…

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