The Nelson Mandela Bay municipality’s roads and transport division has spent only 26% of its operating budget seven months into the 2018/2019 financial year.
The department had planned to spend 50%.
The low expenditure was the subject of a debate in a roads and transport committee meeting on Tuesday last week.
Infrastructure and engineering boss Walter Shaidi said the figures were outdated and that the department had spent 30%.
The report was compiled on January 22. At the time, the total expenditure was to the tune of R150.9m of the available R573.2m.
In terms of spending the urban settlements development grant, the department spent 26%, whereas it spent 17% of its budget for IPTS infrastructure and 21% of the operating budget for the bus system.
In the report, Shaidi wrote that the underspending could be attributed to delays caused by the need for tenders worth more than R10m to be signed off by acting city manager Peter Neilson, among other things.
Other reasons include:
● Poor performance by contractor Omega Civils, which has gone into liquidation. The company was responsible for four contracts that the city has since had to terminate;
● Expenditure is only reflected once creditors have authorised payment;
● The SMME policy has still not been finalised, which is hampering expenditure; and
● Delays in having budget amendments approved for the IPTS.
The DA accused the coalition of failing to spend the money, saying it was in over its head.
DA councillor Rano Kayser said the explanation by Shaidi was simply unacceptable.
“The non-expenditure is causing our roads to collapse.
“We reject [Shaidi’s] explanation. We believe the underspending is deliberate because they are still trying to find ways to loot the money,” Kayser said.
The ANC’s Mbulelo Gidane, before referring questions to roads and transport committee chair Rosie Daaminds, said it understood that invoices that had not been captured were the reason for the poor expenditure.
Daaminds could not be reached for comment.