This article in Business Report talks about municipalities applying for finance whilst failing to spend monies allocated to them by government.

Municipal bosses slammed for incompetence, ignorance
August 10, 2006

By Michael Hamlyn

Cape Town - Details of municipal managers' inefficiency, incompetence and ignorance left members of the national council of provinces shocked on Tuesday.

In the financial year to June, councils had spent only 58.4 percent of the R200 million allocated to them under the municipal systems improvement grant system, the select committee on finance was told by William Ramphele, the municipal finance manager of the department of provincial and local government.

Municipal managers in many provinces had no idea that money had been transferred to them under the municipal systems improvement grant system, Ramphele said. The managers had even less idea that they were supposed to report each month on how the money was being spent.


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Ralane was enraged to hear that municipal managers sought to borrow money from the Development Bank of SA to help with their infrastructure projects, despite having spent less than two-thirds of the money they received from the national government.