20 Feb 2020

Palapye Sub-district Council chairperson Ms Khumoyame Lekoko says the financial status of the council for financial year 2019/2020 is worrisome due to tight budget constraints.

Addressing Palapye Administrative Authority (PAA) full council meeting recently, Ms Lekoko said the approved budget for 2019/2020 was just over P107 million which was one per cent less as compared to P109.8 million for 2018/2019.

The chairperson explained that salary adjustments and other increments introduced in April 2019 had a negative impact on the 2019/2020 budget because they were implemented after the budget approval.

She said this led to financial constraints and some critical votes had already been overspent and therefore the council did not have sufficient funds to sustain council business.

The chairperson said this also impacted negatively, payment to suppliers doing business with the council.

She touched on Constituency Community Projects noting that the total PAA allocation for projects was P27million per annum. She said for the past three years expenditure stood at P25 412 119 for the 2017/ 2018 financial year, P20 149 111 for 2018/2019 and P3 920 615 for the 2019/2020 financial years respectively.

Ms Lekoko explained that in 2017/2018 financial year 154 out of 155 projects had been completed and one project was still ongoing.

In 2018/2019, she said out of 159 projects, 131 projects were complete while 19 were still ongoing at different stages of construction while five projects had not started yet.

She said this financial year 104 projects were approved of which 18 had been completed, 37 ongoing while 60 projects had not started yet.

Ms Lekoko indicated that the delays were encountered due to some circumstances such as shortage of professional staff responsible for design documentation and tendering of projects.

She explained that the department had only two architects, two quantity surveyors and one structural engineer.

She further stated that lack of commitment by some contractors resulted in delayed completion of works and led to termination of contracts.

The chairperson also said the appeal of projects awarded by bidders resulted in some projects being re-tendered. ENDs