30 Mar 2017

Kgatleng District councillors have been encouraged to develop and implement cost saving measures to achieve optimal utilisation of limited resources.
When delivering the municipality’s budget proposals for the year,  finance committee chairperson Mr David Motlhatlhedi said there was need for profound stringent budgetary controls going forward during the 2017/18 financial year.
He said there should be a concerted effort with a clear drive to collect revenue income as proposed and approved by the council.
Mr Motlhatlhedi said the proposed recurrent budget as income from own council sources for the financial year 2017/18 stood at P11  490.950 compared to 2016/17 which stood at P8, 987,440 which represents a difference of P2 503 510 or 27 per cent growth rate.
He said council appreciated that some of the principal growth areas in the proposed income were identified on investment vote from 2016/17 approved figure of P2  497 000 to a proposed figure for 2017/18 budget of P4  750  000.
Councillor Motlhatlhedi added that the growth rate was informed by the actual collection of levies for 2015/16 financial year which amounted to P4 .7 million .
He said another source that has contributed significantly is the issuance of trade lincenses from approved revenue budget for 2016/17 of P1.3 million to a proposed 2017/18 budget of P2 million. He said the 2017/18 revenue support grant had been approved at P139.7 million  which is against the initial proposal of P174.6 million  which represented a 19 per cent decrease of what the district had requested and this called for tight budgetary controls.
Mr Motlhatlhedi said the breakdown of the approved ceilings showed that personnel emoluments get the lion’s share of the budget at P79 million  maintenance of council facilities which included buildings, roads, and streetlights at P15 . 2 million or 10.9 per cent.
He said school equipment and stationery at P6.7 million or 4.8 per cent, relief of destitute persons at P11 .7 million or 8.4 per cent and others which included establishment and running expenses at P27.1 million  
He said the approved development budget for Kgatleng District in the financial year 2017/18 stood at P70.8 million  which comprised primary school facilities expansion under Economic Stimulus Programme at P34.9 million  , constituency development projects at P20 million while Ipelegeng has been allocated P14 million and Destitute and RADP housing P1.9 million .
He told councillors that due to significant budget cuts there was need for them to come up with other means of generating income to augment the existing budget.
Mr Motlhatlhedi further said this was in line with the establishment of structures such as KDDF of which when fully operational would economically benefit the district and enable them to carry our other projects.
He urged all departments to fully utilise the allocated funds as this would ensure that they provided their constituents with necessary services and basic provisions which were geared towards improving their livelihoods. ENDS