The latest information on the financial performance of Buffalo City Metro Municipality paints a dismal picture. In the financial year ending June 2011 BCMM failed to spend 47% of its capital budget – no wonder the infrastructure of BCMM is in such a poor state! Conditional grants were also under spent by nearly half. Irregular expenditure for the financial year is R197 million. The city is incurring debt to the tune of R9 million a month, partly due to poor collections of revenue.
I will admit that a collection of revenue has improved slightly, however it is still below national treasury guidelines. BCMM is only collecting 94,2% of monies it is owed. These figures don’t include people who have been granted indigent status, so it only refers to people who can may but WON’T pay.
The financials of BCMM are simply shocking, and without better financial management the city will never succeed. The sad part of all of this is that the people that suffer most are the ratepayers and poor of BCMM who are not having proper services rendered, while municipal officials and senior politicians continue to live lives of luxury.
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