The Democratic Alliance has put the wheels in motion to have the Makhado Municipality put under administration, following Monday night’s Council meeting during which the annual adjustment budget was discussed.

“The core of the Makhado Municipality, which is the finance department, is rotten from within. Serious intervention by the Limpopo provincial government to put this municipality under administration must be enforced with immediate effect. Because of the financial disorder, we have put the process in motion to report the municipality to the provincial government,” DA councillor Brian du Plooy said on Tuesday in a media release.

The DA states that it is concerned about the current financial expenditure of the Makhado Municipality in the 2010/11 budget.

“The budgeted revenue income for the period July to December last year is R129 million and it was projected at R169 million, a shortfall of R40 million which was under-collected in the first six months,” reads the statement. Another reason for concern is the huge increase in consumer debt. December last year showed an outstanding consumer debtor amount of R154 013 316, which was R4 848 776 more than in November.

The low capital budget expenditure by the municipality, states the DA, is also alarming since underspending goes hand in hand with poor service delivery.

“At least 50% of the budget must have been spent by the end of December 2010," said Cllr du Plooy. Instead, 23% of the capital budget had been spent. The capital budget expenditure by the end of December was R50 886 025.06 of the total capital expenditure budget of R225 769 324. The Community Services Department and the Regional Offices only spent 6%.

Provincial figures from the National Treasury report showed that from April to September last year, Limpopo was one of the worst performers when it came to spending capital budgets. “In this period, out of the R2,7 billion capital budget, a mere 26, 2% was spent by September 2010. Limpopo came second only to the Free State in underspending of capital budgets … A good indicator of excellent service delivery is how capital budgets allocated by National Treasury ... are spent …, “ said DA provincial leader Ms Desiree van der Walt.

Mr Elias Mugari, Director of Community Services, was asked on Tuesday to comment on positive and negative aspects of the adjustment budget, as well as the allegations by the DA that the financial department was rotten from within and their threat to have the municipality put under administration. He undertook to respond by February 3.

One positive point in the adjustment budget was that the amount for repairing potholes had been increased. This week, Mr Elias Mugari, Makhado Municipality’s Director Community Services, shed more light on the matter. "The initial budgeted amount was R3 million for the entire municipality. During the budget adjustment, an amount of R7 million was added to deal with the challenges of potholes in the municipality,” Mr Mugari said. He explained that the budgeted amount is part of the operational budget to cover all potholes within the municipal area.

There is good news that some streets will receive attention soon.

“There is a capital project which currently, because of budget constraints, will concentrate on Kruger, Munnik, Stubbs, Eland, Baobab and a portion of Hlanganani Street. The advertisement for the tender of the project will be carried out on or before February 7,” Mr Mugari said.