The Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI) has reaffirmed its commitment to timely paying municipalities that support governmental structures.
The department said on Tuesday that it is looking into a sum total of R170 146 279.32 as of July 31, 2022, and that it would be reconciled with the municipalities to guarantee proper payment.
Out of a total of 257 municipalities, 210 municipalities where services are provided have sent age analysis reports to the department about payments to municipalities that offer municipal services and property rates.
The DPWI had engaged municipalities as of July 31, 2022, which led to verification. The agency verified that R83 319 809 was outstanding to municipalities for both property taxes and municipal services.
The government stated: “Payments will be handled as soon as invoices are received. The department is waiting for municipalities to submit bills.”
The department claims that an annual invoice for around R67.2 million has been sent, which the agency will pay programmatically each month.
The department does not make a deposit payment.
Incorrect billing to the department for a sum of little more than R12 million also occurred, despite many communications with the municipalities.
“To resolve disputes below the R12 million [mark], the DPWI is working with municipalities to waive the interest connected to the assets of other custodians and urging municipalities to forward future bills to the legitimate owners.
The agency said that as of July 31, 2022, “an sum of little over R324.5 million is also in dispute in terms of property rates and taxes.”
The following steps are being taken by the DPWI to resolve these disputes:
• Asking the towns to waive the interest that cannot be verified.
• Confirming possession or custody of the submitted properties (in some of these cases, the land on which DPWI properties are situated does not belong to the DPWI and therefore poses a challenge when invoices are received, since billing is not based on the footprint of the DPWI property but the entire extent of the land parcel).
• Although governments still need to provide additional information in order to target people who are responsible for arrears/backlog debt, a technique of subdividing or surveying these properties is now being studied.
• Launching a pilot surveying operation in Limpopo to verify the accurate ownership of State-owned assets. When funding is found, the method’ lessons will be used in other provinces.
Since municipalities’ bills are due and payable within the required 30 days after receipt of invoice, the DPWI processes all legitimate and confirmed invoices received within the period specified by municipalities.
Despite the aforementioned, the department reported that from April 2022 to July 2022, the DPWI had paid R1.26 billion in municipal services and property charges across all 257 municipalities.
The sum of R228 million was paid to all municipalities during the month of July 2022 for municipal services and property levies.
By July 2022, 98% of bills were paid within 30 days, up from 96% in June 2022.
The agency said that this is a glaring example of the DPWI’s ongoing efforts to guarantee that all legitimate municipal bills are paid on schedule.
The agency said it does not now owe any money to municipalities in relation to the organisations that report to it. – SAnews.gov.za