Frances Baard district cuts the fat

THE Frances Baard District Municipality implemented strict financial measures to prevent depleting its reserves.

Presenting the 2024/25 budget speech, the Frances Baard executive mayor, Unondumisa Buda, said non-priority spending was cut on advertisements, bursaries and training, catering, entertainment, resettlement costs, travel and accommodation, outsource services, sporting activities and music festivals.

Buda stated that there was a decrease in the infrastructure budget compared to the previous financial year on the allocations to local municipalities.

“This is because the district municipality did not allocate capital allocations and has reduced on operational and maintenance to local municipalities for this financial year, due to financial constraints.

“For operation and maintenance the allocation for 2024/25 is R2,5 million for each local municipality.”

She said the major revenue streams that supported the programmes and activities of the district municipality were government grants and subsidies and interest earned on external investments.

“The total budget for the 2024/25 financial year is R188,7 million, the operational budget is R177,9 million and the capital budget is R10,7 million. We have a deficit of R17,4 million that will have to be funded from our accumulated surplus.”

She added that grants and subsidies were the biggest source of income with total revenue amounting to R150,8 million for the current financial year. “This dependency on grants and subsidies influences our expenditure.”

Equitable Share: R139,1 million

Finance Management Grant: R1 million

Energy Efficiency and Demand Side Management Grant: R4 million

Rural Asset Management Grant: R2,8 million

Expanded Public Works Programme: R1,2 million

Municipal Special Infrastructure Grant: R2,4 million

Skills Grant: R180 000

Economic development of the district: R1,78 million

Local economic development and tourism projects: R1,9 million

Gender-Based Violence (GBV) programmes: R169 750