CT rolls-over R130m after underspending
Underspending on housing projects in Cape Town has accounted for a considerable chunk of funds being rolled-over from the 2015/16 budget to the current financial year.
|||Cape Town - Underspending on housing projects in the city has accounted for a considerable chunk of funds being rolled-over from the 2015/16 budget to the current financial year.
The city council on Wednesday approved R130 million of unspent funds on its 2015/16 capital budget of R6.5 billion to be rolled-over to the 2016/17 year.
At its first meeting of the new term, new councillors were faced with approving an adjustments budget to transfer unspent funds on projects.
R470m of unspent funds on the council's operational budget was also rolled-over. The city council had a capital spend in 2015/16 of 89.6 percent, excluding the amounts to be transferred.
Almost R10m of the grant funding for capital projects to be rolled-over is for unfinished housing projects due to inclement weather, gang violence, problems with contractors and implementation delays.
The affected housing projects are in Scottsdene where 350 units are expected to be completed this month, and Ottery, Hanover Park and Heideveld where projects will only be concluded at the end of the year.
A further R406m of the human settlements operating budget is also being added to the 2016/17 budget.
The money remains in the council's account until the beneficiaries receive their houses.
A further R18.4m is being rolled-over for upgrades on rental units.
But deputy mayor Ian Neilson said with the under-expenditure at only 2 percent of the council's capital budget, it had been one of the council's best performing yet.
The reasons for the under-expenditure were out of its control and had not impacted on service delivery nor tariffs and rates.
"We would love to spend every last cent in a financial year," Neilson said.
But the ANC's Bheki Hadebe said the council's reasons for transferring the funds from one financial year to the next were "shallow" and "weak".
He found it "unstomachable" the council had to roll-over R76.6m in financing from its External Financing Fund.
The bid adjudication committee was failing to perform due diligence on contractors, Hadebe said.
If the council engaged better with the public on its spending plans, there would be less community interference in its projects, he maintained.
The council had to plan better around known factors such as the winter weather and gang violence and conduct better risk assessments, Hadebe said.
More metro police had to be deployed to gang-affected areas.
Having only just entered the Cape Town metro, the EFF's Andrew Arnolds said his party could not agree to the budget and slammed the city council for its housing delivery.
Cape Argus