Finance
Whether there were investigations or whether any investigations or implementations are being done to help investigating alternative and/or additional sources of income and/or financing for any of the municipalities in the Western Cape; if not, why not; if so, what is the extent thereof for each municipality?
Yes, investigations into alternative revenue has largely been focussed around research into the intergovernmental transfer system, through the equitable share review and scrutinising the conditional grants system and allocations to municipalities, to evaluate sufficiency of allocations in relation to municipal mandate. In addition, Provincial Treasury is also assisting Municipalities with revenue management initiatives. Some of the initiatives that would enhance and improve revenue management and collection include the following:
- Monthly monitoring of revenue and expenditure through in-year monitoring processes;
- Monthly monitoring of debtors, debtors management through in-year monitoring processes;
- Evaluation of credit management policies and strategies applied within a given municipality;
- Oversight on borrowings and investments;
- Oversight of intergovernmental transfers to municipalities from provincial and national government;
- Support and training initiatives provided to municipalities to conduct Tariff Modelling exercises, which assists municipalities in determining the most appropriate tariff, taking into account cost coverage and affordability to ensure and assist with financial sustainability. Targeted on-site training has been conducted at Hessequa, Theewaterskloof, Cape Agulhas, Mossel Bay, Beaufort West, George, Witzenberg and Swartland Municipalities.
In light of the revenue raising capabilities of districts, the Western Cape Treasury is also embarking on an exercise to define and cost the services provided by district municipalities against a set of predetermined norms and standards.
