Durban - eThekwini Municipality’s deputy mayor Philani Mavundla plans to use the R4.3-billion budget for the human settlement and infrastructure (HSI) unit in the next 11 months.
Among its services, the unit is responsible for providing housing, roads, electricity, water infrastructure, transportation and waste management.
Mavundla hosted a gala dinner at the Radisson Blu Umhlanga Hotel on Thursday where he unpacked how they planned to spend the budget. He invited business forums, contractors and business people to explain how the funds would be used.
Mavundla said it was important to break down the budget for transparency so stakeholders could know what to expect.
Referred to the business forums, some of which have been demanding tenders and interrupting projects, Mavundla said they would root out the corrupt elements.
He disclosed that some contracts in the city have been extended indefinitely, such as water tankers and security tenders, costing the city millions.
He committed to provide feedback every 90 days in the interest of transparency and to show that he was serious about turning things around. “We are the biggest cluster in terms of services we provide and revenue collection. Water and electricity alone account for over R20 billion of our budget.
“Within 90 days, all projects that were budgeted for must have been started; if not, I will be failing. This is people’s money, we need to be transparent about it to avoid misunderstanding. I want to show them what opportunities there would be available.
“Some workers are taking their time, trying to delay so they can have their deals on the side. We want to be transparent. People must know when the tender closes, these are the processes and the exact dates when we will be invoicing,” he said.
Mavundla said the city had not received money from the provincial or national government for the repairs infrastructure that was damaged in the floods, including the R30 million for the rebuilding of the water reservoir in oThongathi.
He said his unit’s budget was raised by the city and would be spent on maintenance and fixing some of the damaged infrastructure. “The donations that the city received were handled by various NGOs as if they were conditional gifts rather than entering the city’s coffers.
“The housing backlog is a major issue, but as the municipality, we are an implementing agency for the provincial and national departments.
On the administrative side, Sipho Mbhele, Acting City Manager, said they would develop a system to ensure senior managers support Mavundla’s vision to have all projects started within 90 days.
He said the city has developed contract management for quality assurance that contractors will have to subscribe to and would be penalised should they fail to perform.
“We want to improve our supply chain management by shortening the timelines from the date of tender advertisement to the appointment letters to avoid delays. We also want to pay our contractors on time to build their capacity, especially the emerging ones.
We will ensure that we pay within the stipulated time, which is 28 days according to the municipal financial management act. To achieve this, the plan will be included as part of the personal performance indicator of senior managers so that we do not depart from our goal,”he said.
SUNDAY TRIBUNE