City of Ekurhuleni returns R9.5m in unspent grants to Treasury
President Ramaphosa has slammed failures to spend funds as tantamount to treason against citizens.
The failure to spend the funds has been blamed on incompetence and mismanagement.
The City of Ekurhuleni has returned R9 542 843 in unspent grant funding from the previous financial year, money that was earmarked for crucial infrastructure projects, library resources, equipment and maintenance to improve residents' quality of life.
This was revealed in a reply to a DA question in the Gauteng Legislature by the MEC for cooperative governance and traditional affairs, Jacob Mamabolo.
He revealed that the five grants returned to Treasury were:
R6 109 609 for the Human Settlements Development Plan;
R1 308 918.50 for the Urban Settlement Development Grant;
R777 476.88 for the Neighbourhood Development Partnership Grant (NDPG);
R525 944.82 for the HIV/Aids Grant;
and R820 893.95 for the Libraries Plan.
This revelation comes in the backdrop of President Cyril Ramaphosa castigating municipalities failing to spend allocated funds, saying this was 'an affront to the people' and 'tantamount to treason' against citizens.
Michael Waters, DA member of the Gauteng provincial legislature, said it was unacceptable that the metro failed to spend on its allocated grant while struggling to deliver services to its residents.
This is putting service delivery at risk due to incompetence, poor planning and mismanagement of funds.
Michael Waters
Waters said the implementation of infrastructure projects that promote equitable, integrated, productive, inclusive and sustainable urban development was not done.
Investment targeted to attract and sustain third-party capital investments aimed at spatial transformation, improving the quality of life and access to opportunities for residents of townships and rural towns, was impacted due to failure to spend the grant.
Waters
He said HIV/Aids programmes were also affected, putting lives at risk and that the failure to use the grants for libraries means residents are denied access to a critical resource for learning and acquiring skills.
Waters added that it was high time that Mamabolo intervened by engaging all municipalities on the importance of spending allocated grants by implementing stringent measures to curb under-expenditure.
The City of Ekurhuleni says it returned grant funds mainly due to minimal balances, failed tenders and redirection refusals.
Acting city manager Kagiso Lerutla said the Urban Settlement Development Grant funds were too small to allocate and a request to redirect them was denied by Treasury.
The NDPG balance came from projects in Thokoza and Daveyton that couldn't be reallocated.
HIV/Aids grant funds remained unused due to failed, centralised tender processes.
Lerutla said.
'An attempt to use an existing tender took too long, and the financial year lapsed. [On] the Human Settlements Development Grant, [these] were residual funds from various projects that could not be repurposed despite a request to apply them.'
He added that the library services grant went unspent due to supply issues for ordered materials, a contractor facing cash flow problems and community disruptions during library maintenance work.
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