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NATIONAL TREASURY VISITS GEORGE MUNICIPALITY TO ASSESS ITS BUDGET AND PERFORMANCE

The National Treasury, accompanied by the representatives from the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA), Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), Neighbourhood Development Partnership Programme and Provincial Treasury visited the George Municipality on a two-day programme as part of the Mid-Year Budget and Performance Assessment for Municipalities.

The George Municipality in these engagements was represented by the Executive Mayor, Alderman Leon van Wyk, Portfolio Councillor for Financial and Strategic Services Dirk Wessels, Municipal Manager for George Dr Michele Gratz, the Chief Financial Officer Riaan du Plessis, the directors of the George Municipality, some senior managers, and managers.

“Twice a year we have engagements with the National Treasury that assess and review our finances. We are one of the privileged intermediate cities in the country that are a non-delegated Municipality, in other words, we report directly to the national Treasury,” said Mayor van Wyk. “Our engagements with them are always valuable as we can discuss our infrastructure needs, various financing needs and the biggest challenges we face, the load shedding and electricity. We, therefore, value these engagements enormously and it is then we have that opportunity to engage directly with them and bring the major challenges that we face as Municipalities to their attention.”

On Thursday, 16 March 2023, which was day one of the two days, the George Municipality presented the following to the delegation:

  • Current Institutional Arrangements
  • Municipal standard chart of accounts (mSCOA) implementation
  • Financial performance for 2021/2022, 2022/2023 Mid-Year and the 2022/2023 Adjustments budget proposals
  • Financial Governance and
  • Performance as per the 2021/2022 annual report and the 2022/2023 Mid-Year performance assessment report.

On day 2, Friday, 17 March 2023, the delegation visited Infrastructure projects from the Municipality’s Electrotechnical Services Departments and Civil Engineering. One of the sites they visited, is the new 66/11 kV 40 MVA electrical substation which is currently under construction in Thembalethu. This substation is set to be amongst the largest of its kind in the Southern Cape, and a major bulk infrastructure milestone for the city of George. It will improve reliability and provide an adequate capacity of electrical supply to the area, alleviate the load on the substations that are currently supplying Thembalethu and will serve as an important catalyst for investment funding from both the state and business.

Another site the delegation visited was the 20 Ml/d extensions to the New Water Treatment Works (New WTW). George Municipality received a Budget Facility for Infrastructure Funding (BFI) grant to the value of R1.107 billion from the National Treasury in the 2021/22 financial year. The BFI project with its various components has shown significant progress and expenditure to date in the 2022/23 financial year. George Municipality is actively working to keep our economy on the go – by ensuring adequate long-term planning and investment in our resources – that is water, sewerage, and electricity.

The National Treasury expressed its overall impression of their visit to George Municipality.  “We are here to conduct the Mid-Year visit with the Municipality. We are very impressed with the municipality’s handling of its finances. One of the good things that other Municipalities are struggling with is paying creditors, but George Municipality has consistently shown its ability to pay its creditors. The Municipality is on a sustainable path; one of the other things that the municipality is doing well is the appropriateness to cushion their communities and businesses through load shedding by fast-tracking the implementation of the Independent Power Producers (IPPs) projects,” said Mandla Gilimani, director in the National Treasury who is responsible for George Municipality.

Gilimani also praised the Municipality for its well-maintained infrastructure. “Service delivery is clearly visible with well looked after roads network and cleanliness of the town. This will go a long way in attracting investments into the city.” The Auditor-General advised late last year that George Municipality achieved a clean audit for 2021/22, this, according to the Municipal Manager, Dr Michele Gratz is “a testament to the hard work being put in by the administration to continuously improve service delivery whilst also maintaining the highest quality in our administrative processes”.

Ends.

CAPTION:

Sitting in front from left: Riaan du Plessis (Chief Financial Officer of George Municipality), Dr Michele Gratz (George Municipal Manager), Alderman Leon van Wyk (Executive Mayor of George), Councillor Dirk Wessels (Portfolio Councillor for Financial & Strategic Services from the George Municipality) and Mandla Gilimani (Director from National Treasury responsible for George Municipality)

At the back: Senior officials from Georg e Municipality, National Treasury, Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA), Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), Neighbourhood Development Partnership Programme and Provincial Treasury.

 

Executive Mayor of George, Ald Leon van Wyk welcomes the National Treasury visit delegation

 

Day 1 of the 2-day National Treasury programme of Mid-Year Budget and Performance Assessment for George Municipality.

 

The delegation visited was the 20 Mld extensions to the New Water Treatment Works

 

The delegation visited the new 6611 kV 40 MVA electrical substation which is currently under construction in Thembalethu