KOUGA is financially stronger than it has ever been.
That was the good news shared by Executive Mayor Horatio Hendricks in his recent State of the Municipality Address.
“For the first time in years, Kouga has been able to generate sufficient own revenue to augment its grant funding and boost capital delivery,” he reported.
“Our cash on hand has been growing steadily, from R78-million in June 2017 to R92,3-million in June 2018.
“The institution’s cost coverage ratio has also improved, from 0.9 in the original 2018/2019 budget to 1.5 in the adjustments budget.
“Our revenue collection is at a healthy 94%. Our CFO deserves every penny we pay him.”
He said the municipality had been able to adjust its revenue upwards by R5,98-million in the adjustments budget due to a higher than expected income for property rates and service charges.
“What is encouraging about our budget is that 85% of it is funded through own revenue and only 15% through grants and allocations from other sectors of state.
“This means that even if all other funding sources dried up, Kouga would still be able to do business and serve its communities.”
Hendricks said another feather in the cap for the municipality was that it recently became one of the first municipalities in South Africa to successfully switch over to the new municipal Standard Chart of Accounts (mSCOA) – and achieve an unqualified audit while doing so.
“This switch-over was no easy task and many municipalities were unable to comply fully with the new standards in 2017/2018, the year under review.”
He said Kouga’s emphasis of matter was minimal, which bodes well for the institution’s drive to achieve a clean audit.
“While water and electricity losses were among the matters emphasised by the AG, we were pleased to note that there was a significant reduction in these losses, which saved the municipality R11-million when compared to the previous financial year,” he said.
