27 Feb 2017

Kanye Administrative Authority (KAA) councillors were informed that the sub-council utilized funds amounting to around P62, 812 283 against the budgeted amount of P67, 543 740 leaving the local authority with a balance of P4 641 456 to be utilised from the month of January to March 2017.

Speaking during the sub-council session recently KAA chairperson, Mr Tlhomamo Dibeela said in the third quarter the sub-council budgeted P50, 215, 305 against P62, 812, 283 spent, which is 18 per cent more than the quarterly budget.

Cllr Dibeela said the shortfall is due to an increase in number of destitute, high water bills at primary schools, wages rates and provision of security services, adding the budget deficit is anticipated by the end of financial year.

Mr Dibeela urged council employees to develop a strategy that will help them to efficiently manage the available funds and resources and to come up with ideas to generate revenue for the council.

Councillor Dibeela said KAA is assisting a total of 4 945 registered beneficiaries. He said the number of beneficiaries keeps on increasing especially destitute persons and needy students due to lack of job opportunities and poor family support structures.

He said this calls for the district to come up with deliberate strategies to reduce the number of destitute persons assisted.

He further said they have observed that some orphans face challenges such as abuse, negligence by caregivers, property grabbing and denied access to be cared for.

“The Social and Community Development department intends to conduct a feedback workshop for the caregivers to address issues picked during the two retreats and a follow up meeting for orphans when schools close.’’, he said.

He said one of the government priorities is to eradicate abject poverty saying  KAA has since the inception of the poverty eradication programme funded a total of 276 alternative projects to the tune of P9 918 980.

Mr Dibeela said a total of 266 projects of the funded projects are operational while 10 are not operational, not operational, the reasons are being non-commitment of other beneficiaries which led to collapse of projects.

On agricultural poverty eradication packages he said a total of 1079 beneficiaries were approved for assistance and out of the numbers 432 are funded and 647 projects are still to be funded, 357 are operational, 48 are non-operational while 22 have failed.

Concerning LIMID he said they have received 1208 applications since phase II of which 1057 were approved and 80 rejected while 71 awaits appraisal.

With regards to  Youth Development (YDF) he said the programme aims at empowering and creating job opportunities for youths while at the same time diversifying the economy.

He was worried that beneficiaries are not paying back their loans as anticipated and explained that the office is currently having arrears amounting to P357 961.

He encouraged beneficiaries to repay their loans in addition to Youth Office initiatives of writing them default arrears. ENDS