12 Aug 2020

 North West District councillors have been urged to focus on aligning the council budget with government’s transformational agenda.

When presenting the proposed 2021/22 recurrent and development budget, chairperson of the finance and education committee, Mr Petros Tjetjoo said in an effort to achieve that, there was need to focus attention on priority areas such as improving service delivery and effective social protection programmes.

Other priority areas included maintenance of public infrastructure; prompt payment of service providers/suppliers as well as provision of information, communication technology (ICT) infrastructure and equipment to primary schools, customary courts and the community at large.

By so doing, he said their socio-economic prosperity intentions would not be a farfetched dream.

Mr Tjetjoo also reminded councillors about the four national policy priorities of promotion of export-led growth, ensuring more efficient government spending and financing, building human capital and provision of appropriate infrastructure.

The four priorities, he said, were the targeted drivers to take the council from its current status of middle income economy to a more advanced upper middle income status.

He said the proposed recurrent budget for 2021/22 financial year was prepared on zero based budgeting method, which in essence offered them an opportunity to reprioritise their objectives.

The aim of the budget, he said, was for efficient allocation of resources, reducing wastage and entrenching cost containment, adding that would also be in line with the recovery plan that was drawn in response to the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak.

The meeting learnt that the tentative income and expenditure estimates for 2021/22 financial year stood at P538 714 620, comprising of P526 396 690 and P12 317 930 Revenue Support Grant (RSG) and income from own sources respectively.

Mr Tjetjoo explained that the proposed budget showed a 25 per cent increase on the current approved recurrent estimates, noting that the increase was mainly driven by the council efforts to chart pathways for creation of new poles of economic growth as they pursue a transformative journey to attain the status of an inclusive high income country.

He stated that the largest share of the proposed budget would cater for special expenses with a total of P199 257 380, which translated to 37 per cent. The provision would cover for Revenue Contribution to Capital Outlay (RCCO), relief of destitute, property valuation and security services, among others.

He said the second largest share of the budget would go to personnel emoluments, with a total allocation of P182 682 480 that translated to 34 per cent of the proposed recurrent budget.

Mr Tjetjoo said 20 per cent of the budget would be for the running expenses, while the remaining nine per cent, amounting to P46 470 665.82, would cover costs for establishment expenses, which provided for staff and members travelling expenses, village development committees’ allowances and staff training.

Regarding the proposed development budget for financial year 2021/22, he said local authorities would continue to implement projects and programmes as guided by the National Development Plan 11 (NDP 11) in its current form.

He hoped that the NDP 11 mid-term review would address new emerging issues. The development budget proposal, he said, amounted to P464 236 876.71 the bulk of which would be channeled to construction of primary school facilities at P149 million, Ipelegeng programme at P71 559 109.88, school feeding P41 414 766.83, orphan care P39 500 500, while community constituency funding programme and public facilities maintenance had been allocated P40 million each.

Mr Tjetjoo said the council had for a long time been having a problem of maintaining its infrastructure. ENDS