Local Government Is Not Spending Enough

Farrel — Sat, 07 Apr 2007 06:02:00 -0400

For service delivery to happen, government needs to spend money. Lots and lots of money in the particular case of South Africa. Every year SARS collects a record amount of tax revenue ready to be distributed to all level of government and used in their fight against poverty. Despite receiving all that money local government just can’t seem to spend it all.

With only 27.4 percent of the budget spent by the end of February and three months to go before the end of the 2006/07 financial year, Mayco member for corporate services Belinda Walker said on Wednesday it was not only a lack of capacity prohibiting budget spend, but also procurement legislation.

It is not a good sign that Cape Town local government has only managed to spend just over a quarter of it’s budget when three quarters of the financial year has passed. It’s unclear if all the blame can be laid at the foot of national treasury legislation holding up spending at municipalities, but if there’s to be any hope of meaningful service delivery both local and national government need to sort this kind of problem out.

"Local Government Is Not Spending Enough" by Karen

Thu, 12 Apr 2007 02:03:52 -0400

Maybe this is the case with Cape Town and other local governments but it is not so with Durban. Have a look:

http://www.durban.gov.za/durban/Municipality/treasury/news/draft-medium-term-2007-2008-to-2009-2010-budget/view?searchterm=budget

Politics.za: Local Government Is Not Spending Enough

Local Government Is Not Spending Enough

"Local Government Is Not Spending Enough" by Karen