Financial constraints fail KDC plans
Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Tuesday March 21, 2023 15:19
Molokwe said most government departments including the council had very limited funds to carry out their day-to-day duties. He said the financial challenges not only impacted the quality of services offered to the public but also affected the quantity and frequency of services as transport and other key resources were a major challenge amongst all departments.
“Most of the district fleet was off the road due to maintenance needs which could not be met. It is important, therefore, that I commend the district personnel as well the leadership inclusive of this honourable house for maintaining high spirits and doing more with the little at their disposal to ensure continuity of service. However, there is still much that needs to be done in terms of restoring services to normalcy as we must admit that a greater part of our goals was not realised due to delays in processes like procurement of projects which were completely within our control to handle and deal with,” Molokwe said.
The chairperson said it is a concern that in March 2021 a decision to re-gravel their roads for P7 million was taken by the executive and a year later the plan to commence work is still ongoing. He further said programmes like the Constituency Community Projects (CCP) for the financial year 2022–2023 have not yet commenced.
In addition, Molokwe cautioned against the slow pace of implementation of projects. The council chair said this goes against the direction and goals of the current government as prescribed in the party manifesto as well as the Reset Agenda.
He continued: “The community is currently not able to access their homes, and businesses are unable to access their market because of the state of roads in the entire district. We are generally at a state or district urgency as far as road maintenance is concerned and hence should expedite our procurement process.”
He, however, said some of the envisaged critical projects that are to start in earnest to address the pending road crisis include re-gravelling of all district main road projects through the Road Levy programme, completion of the CCP projects at respective wards, and use of CCP balances from the previous financial years and going forward. "The proposal is to rationalise their machinery (especially the dozer at the landfill), to alternate its use between the landfill and occasionally for burrow gravel," Molokwe said.