Municipalities’ spent 40.4% or R168.3 billion of their total adopted budget of R416.9 billion as at 31 December 2017.
“In respect of revenue, aggregate billing and other revenue amounted to 46.5%, or R192.0 billion, of the total adopted revenue budget of R413.2 billion,” said National Treasury.
This as National Treasury on Tuesday released local government’s revenue and expenditure for the second quarter of the 2017/18 financial year, as well as spending on conditional grants for the same period.
This report covers the second quarter of the municipal financial year ending on 31 December 2017.
Of the adopted operating expenditure budget amounting to R346.3 billion, R146.6 billion or 42.6% was spent by 31 December 2017.
Meanwhile, in the period under review, capital expenditure amounted to R20.6 billion, or 29.2%, of the adopted capital budget of R70.6 billion. Treasury said the slow spending on the capital budget is a concern.
“This partly relates to the hockey stick phenomena in local government but also the late start of effective Supply Chain Management planning processes,” said Treasury.
The report found that aggregated year-to-date total expenditure for metros amounted to R105.1 billion, or 43.5%, of their adopted budget expenditure of R241.3 billion. Meanwhile, the aggregated adopted capital budget for metros in the 2017/18 financial year is R37.9 billion, of which 26.2%, or R9.9 billion, has been spent as at 31 December 2017.
The report is part of the in-year Management, Monitoring and Reporting System for Local Government (IYM), which enables provincial and national government to exercise oversight over municipalities, and identify possible problems in implementing municipal budgets and conditional grants.
In-year reporting is institutionalised with most municipalities that consistently produce quarterly financial reports. The reporting facilitates transparency, better in-year management as well as the oversight of municipal budgets. This makes these reports management tools and early warning mechanisms for councils, provincial legislatures and officials in order to monitor and improve municipal performance. - SAnews.gov.za
