Article: Supplied by Francis Baard District Municipality
At a council meeting 19 May 2023, the Frances Baard District Municipality adopted its budget for the 2023/24 financial year, tabled by the Executive Mayor Cllr. Unondumiso Buda.
The total budget for the 2023/24 financial year is R187,8m. The operational budget is R180,387m. The capital budget for the district municipality is R7,5m.
The Frances Baard District Municipality has been allocated an operational budget of R180,387 m for the 2023/24 financial year, while the capital budget for the district municipality is R7,5 m.
According to the district, the main focus for the 2023/24 financial year will be on operation and maintenance in the following areas: Maintenance of electrical infrastructure, roads & stormwater; wastewater infrastructure; water infrastructure and solid waste management landfill site.
Through the Extended Public Works Programme (EPWP), the municipality created 60 job opportunities in the 2022/23 financial year; their target for 2023/24 is 37 FTEs.
The significant grant funding that the district municipality is receiving from the national government is as follows:
- Equitable Share: R 136,271m
- Finance Management Grant: R 1m
- Rural Asset Management Grant: R 2,707m
- EPWP: R 959,000
- MSIG: R 3,2m
- Skills Grant: R 180,000
The district’s economic development remains a priority and the district municipality allocated R2, 18m and R1, 54m towards local economic development and tourism projects, respectively.
Capital allocation is R3m for each local municipality and R400,000 for the maintenance of streetlights in local municipalities.
Grants and subsidies constitute the most significant income source of R 144,317m for 2023/24, which is 95% of the total revenue. This dependency on grants and subsidies influences expenditure.
Due to budget constraints, the infrastructure allocations to the four local municipalities in the 2023/24 financial year will concentrate on supporting the continued operations and maintenance (O&M) of infrastructure and R1, 8m for (O&M) was allocated to each local municipality.
The Gender-based Violence (GBV) program budget amounts to R169,750.
To enable the district municipality to assist its local municipalities financially, strict measures were put in place to mitigate the emerging risk of continually depleting the district municipality’s reserves by cutting on non-priority spending such as advertisements, bursaries and training, catering, entertainment, resettlement cost, travel and accommodation, outsource services, sporting activities and music festivals.
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