INLSA
Several years ago, a banquet was held in a huge marquee on the arena at the Royal Showgrounds in Pietermaritzburg. This was a time – now left behind to quite a significant extent, I’m pleased to say – when every MEC’s budget speech in the provincial legislature was followed by a celebratory function.
Invitations went far and wide. On this particular occasion, the caterers were requested to partition the arena in such a way that some 500 empty seats, about half the number, would be concealed from view.
An array of empty seats is not an uncommon sight at events of this nature. One reason is that the management of invitations and responses is poor, handled often by event management companies that do not know the people being invited and are using inaccurate databases. Another is the growing trend of people accepting an invitation, but not pitching when the time comes.
This happens far more frequently when attendance is free. When people are required to pay, they are not inclined to waste, but it is easier – and more acceptable, apparently – to waste someone else’s money. Of course, when it is government money being wasted, it is our own, but for the most part we are not up to understanding that. In the case of the event to which I referred, there was great irony in the fact that all round the arena there were banners saying “Spend wisely”.
In a way, this might have been a watershed event, for there has been considerably more prudence since. The achievements of the provincial government in turning round a yawning deficit are to be commended – not that wastefulness has been eliminated entirely.
The point has been made before that the estimated R9 billion that would accrue from the proposed tax on business (under consideration at present) represents just 3 percent of the national budget.
Is there anyone who doesn’t believe that the government could save 3 percent?
Durban residents, and those in Maritzburg, apparently, are going to be paying for the Spring Grove Dam through increases to water tariffs. I don’t think this is unfair. If we don’t pay for it by this means, we’ll have to do so by some other, and I think that the user pay principle is sound.
What is unfair, however, is that to a large extent we are going to be paying for the cost of the delay in commencing with the construction. The rate at which costs rise in the field of infrastructure means that any delay represents wasted money, and probably in large quantities, as is the case with Spring Grove.
If it is not delays in the commencement of large projects, resulting from paralysing protocols or rank inefficiency, it is the failure to give sufficient attention to regular maintenance. eThekwini, by the way, has a comparatively good record in this respect.
When money is tight, it is the allocation to maintenance that is compromised, and the consequence of this is that much higher costs are involved later, either when the repair is inevitable, or when replacement is indicated.
Legislation outlaws fruitless and wasteful expenditure and provides for the money to be recovered from anyone responsible. Perhaps I have missed it, but I am not aware of anyone having been held to account on this score.
When I was in Maritzburg, the chamber lodged a complaint with the National Treasury against the leaders of the district municipality for, quite irresponsibly, having diverted more than R1 million of a budgeted allocation to an individual who represented a business organisation.
The issue was referred to the MEC for investigation. Eventually, we found out through the media that the blame for this expenditure had been laid on the municipal manager who had signed the cheque, an expenditure that had been authorised, against his advice apparently, by the exco.
This was convenient, for the municipal manger had already tendered his resignation, making him a most appropriate fall guy. He was the accounting officer, of course, and technically he had erred in signing the cheque. This is a dimension of local government not always understood.
Who would be a municipal manager when his or her operational performance may be significantly impeded by whimsical decisions of councillors?
