GCC may fail to pay schools� water, electricity bills
Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Wednesday September 21, 2016 17:14
“However, council has observed that some activities which have been budgeted for are not spending as quickly as expected, while others have recorded higher expenditures, and there is an indication that may be depleted before the end of the financial year,” Thutlwe said. “One such expenditure vote is that which has been allocated for water and electricity bills.” Thutlwe said there was need to accelerate expenditure on maintenance of council facilities so as to deal with problems such as water leakages in schools while at the same time maintaining the highest level of functionality on their facilities.
The capital city mayor said they would embark on regular budget reviews in accordance with the budget manual for prudent resource allocation and utilisation.
He said some of the activities which are not urgent may need to be put on hold so as to focus and release resources to priority areas. Thutlwe said total revenue collected is lower than the money they expected, excluding rates. He explained that the total revenue estimated to be collected from own sources, excluding rates for the current financial year, is P35.3 million. As at August 30, a total P5.5 million was collected. “This translates to just 15.6% of the total estimate against an expected collection of 41%.”
He said while rates payments have improved slightly, they are still to reach expected levels. “Having said that, the total amount of rates collected from the beginning of the financial year is still as low as P26 million. This represents 18.3% of the opening balance at the beginning of the financial year. The opening balance on outstanding rates bill was P143 million at the start of 2016/17 financial year,” he said.