The Makhado Municipality says it has an action plan in place to address the findings in the recent negative report by the auditor-general on the financial state of the municipality. In addition, the auditor-general will be invited to give advice.

“The management, through the accounting officer, has instructed the chief financial officer (CFO) to compile an action plan to address all the findings of the AG by April 2011. The AG will be invited by the municipality to monitor the progress of the action plan and to advise before the start of the next budget cycle,” reads a municipal statement on behalf of the municipal manager, Mr Shadrack Tshikalange.

The director community of services, Mr Elias Mugari, said that capacity building workshops were being arranged for all personnel who were dealing with financial management in the municipality, including at regional offices. According to the statement, most of the information regarding the prior years’ financial balances had not been available to the AG.

“However, the situation has since improved, and all records are kept ... The municipality has also appointed an internal audit unit and it is now fully functional,” Mugari said. Tshikalange painted a positive picture about other aspects when he addressed the Soutpansberg Ratepayers Association on February 15. Tshikalange assured the ratepayers that hundreds of positions that had been vacant were now filled.

“We are bringing in a lot of new people. Teams are working full-time on issues like road infrastructure,” Tshikalange said. He also indicated that the money budgeted for infrastructure in towns and villages had not been enough and that an adjustment to the current budget had been made. He cited the example that the R3million budget for street repairs had been increased to R7million.

Debt collection is also receiving attention. “The townships asked us why we didn’t write off their debts. We have appointed a company for debt collection. We shall be vigorous in the next couple of months to increase our debt collection rate,” Tshikalange said.

The action plan that Tshikalange has in mind to address water supply challenges is to endeavour to get the water function back to the local municipality. Vhembe District Municipality is the water authority with the function of bulk water supply. “This results in a process that is very slow and irritating to our communities. We have to work together to see that we get the water function back,” Tshikalange said.