The Free State Department of Public Works and Infrastructure has blamed the staggering R1-billion debt to municipalities on budget allocation cuts.
Sunday World reported last week that the Free State provincial government is indebted to dozens of municipalities in terms of rates and taxes, water and electricity.
This week, MEC of Public Works and Infrastructure Dibolelo Mance told Sunday World that the debt emanated from the reduced budget allocated by the provincial treasury, and pointed out that there were plans to deal with the historical debt.
As a result of the debt, many municipalities in the province do not have funds to provide service delivery.
“On my arrival at the department in 2023, I found out that public works owes municipalities money, and the outstanding amount came to the fore based on audit outcomes. What I wanted to achieve in the department is to get a clean audit, as we have been lingering on unqualified audit opinions for quite some time,” said Mance.
“We have been raising this matter of the debt in different forums, and we discussed with the exco how this issue could be resolved through presentation on how we can deal with the funding of water and electricity. We suggested a model where each government department can be allowed to pay for its water and electricity,” she said.
“Another issue we have raised was that as public works pays for various departments’ water and electricity, can we claim the money from those departments? We also raised an issue that if we continue to centralise the budget, can we be given enough resources to do so?” she asked.
Free State Treasury spokesperson Tshidiso Mokokoane said the Department of Public Works is allocated a budget in terms of the Provincial Appropriation Act; thus, the department can decide how the budget is appropriated within the respective programmes.
