NMB Loses R242 Million in Infrastructure Grants to Other Municipalities
Athol Trollip
ActionSA Eastern Cape Provincial Chairperson
ActionSA is deeply disappointed on behalf of the residents of Nelson Mandela Bay that the Metro has lost R242 million from its conditional grant funding intended to fix roads and build houses because it was not spent in the 2021/2022 financial year. This brings the total returned to the Treasury for the past three financial years to R860 million.
Treasury will award this unspent money to other municipalities that have managed to effectively use their conditional grants. This travesty points to the dismal, historical mismanagement of the finances of this metro by the recent ANC-led coalitions which is compounded by the abysmal current revenue collection rate of 64%. This parlous situation is all the more lamentable when one considers that when the City was governed by myself in a DA-led coalition between 2016 and 2018 we were the nett recipient of hundreds of thousands of rands from other underspending municipalities because we were able to spend 100% of our capital infrastructure grant funding.
The lack of urgency, commitment and prudent fiscal discipline of those tasked with providing basic services through well-maintained infrastructure is deeply concerning. From the Mayor’s own admission: there are almost 700km of gravel roads that need to be tarred and a housing backlog of around 90,000 houses. The funds could also have been used to improve the quality of life of the residents inhabiting the burgeoning and squalid informal settlements of the metro and fixing the state of roads in townships and especially the roads destroyed by the manganese trucks in the Markman township.
What is even more alarming is the delinquency of the municipality in that they did not request rollovers for most of the said underspent grant funding.
ActionSA implores the new coalition currently at the helm of Nelson Mandela Bay to prioritise the urgent improvement of the effective and efficient management of the finances of the Eastern Cape’s largest metro. The proper financial planning and management and maintenance of this city’s infrastructure is crucial to its future economic well-being and its ability to attract economic investment and tourism. This city cannot afford to lose any conditional grant or equitable share funding and the safest way to ensure this is to never ever allow the city to be governed by the ANC again and this can only be done by ensuring that the current and future coalition governments commit to good governance.
NMB Loses R242 Million in Infrastructure Grants to Other Municipalities
ActionSA is deeply disappointed on behalf of the residents of Nelson Mandela Bay that the Metro has lost R242 million from its conditional grant funding intended to fix roads and build houses because it was not spent in the 2021/2022 financial year. This brings the total returned to the Treasury for the past three financial years to R860 million.
Treasury will award this unspent money to other municipalities that have managed to effectively use their conditional grants. This travesty points to the dismal, historical mismanagement of the finances of this metro by the recent ANC-led coalitions which is compounded by the abysmal current revenue collection rate of 64%. This parlous situation is all the more lamentable when one considers that when the City was governed by myself in a DA-led coalition between 2016 and 2018 we were the nett recipient of hundreds of thousands of rands from other underspending municipalities because we were able to spend 100% of our capital infrastructure grant funding.
The lack of urgency, commitment and prudent fiscal discipline of those tasked with providing basic services through well-maintained infrastructure is deeply concerning. From the Mayor’s own admission: there are almost 700km of gravel roads that need to be tarred and a housing backlog of around 90,000 houses. The funds could also have been used to improve the quality of life of the residents inhabiting the burgeoning and squalid informal settlements of the metro and fixing the state of roads in townships and especially the roads destroyed by the manganese trucks in the Markman township.
What is even more alarming is the delinquency of the municipality in that they did not request rollovers for most of the said underspent grant funding.
ActionSA implores the new coalition currently at the helm of Nelson Mandela Bay to prioritise the urgent improvement of the effective and efficient management of the finances of the Eastern Cape’s largest metro. The proper financial planning and management and maintenance of this city’s infrastructure is crucial to its future economic well-being and its ability to attract economic investment and tourism. This city cannot afford to lose any conditional grant or equitable share funding and the safest way to ensure this is to never ever allow the city to be governed by the ANC again and this can only be done by ensuring that the current and future coalition governments commit to good governance.