Joburg Council Speech: June Revenue Collection Figures
Note to editors: The following speech was delivered by Patrick Atkinson, DA Shadow MMC of Finance in the City of Johannesburg, during a council sitting today.
Madam Speaker,
The City's monthly revenue collection figures reported to council in Item 20 of the agenda show improvement for the month of June, but unfortunately the overall picture for the last 12 months is pretty bleak, with a reported revenue collection rate of 89,5%.
This figure is nearly 4% below the City's budgeted collection rate and will represent a revenue shortfall of some R700 million to R800 million for the year. The result of this will be further service delivery cutbacks in the City and less money to efficiently provide the services that the City is required to offer its residents. This has led to a slashing of the health budget and the general degradation in the City's infrastructure, because there is not enough cash to spend on adequate repairs and maintenance as stipulated in National Treasury Guidelines.
It may be worthwhile for council to note that the disappointing 12 month collection rate has taken place during a period where there has been a huge focus on improving collections through the Revenue Step Change programme initiated in November last year. These poor collection figures are also against a backdrop of a higher provision for bad debts as well as debt impairment being constantly over budget at City Power and Johannesburg Water over the past year.