The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality says the metro is working hard to spend 40 percent of the R361 million Informal Settlements Upgrading Partnership Grant (ISUPG) in an effort to accelerate essential service delivery and stop underspending.
Member of the Mayoral Committee (MMC) for Human Settlements, Thembinkosi Mafana, said the metro is working closely with senior officials and project managers to make sure that spending and the quality of work tally with the timeframes stipulated in the process plan.
"We want to push all our efforts to spend at least 40 percent of the allocated funds by the December 2024 break so that by January when we reopen, we accelerate performance even more,” Mafana said.
The standing committee this week visited a number of active sites that are funded under the ISUPG, including the Arlington Landfill Site fencing that has been funded for R15 million. Other visits included sites for housing delivery funded for R50 million, roads and storm water infrastructure and electrification of shacks and temporary houses.
The grant covers a number of deliverables that form part of holistic human settlements, such as servicing sites, relocation of communities from vulnerable areas, provision of services like water, electricity, and sanitation to the development of parks and creation of a safe and sustainable environment.
Mafana noted that the municipality’s job must not end at approving budgets at standing committee and council.
“We must follow through in spending, quality of work and monitor adherence to timeframes,” Mafana said.
The MMC added that the ISUPG site visits, which form part of the MMC and the standing committee oversight responsibility for the current financial year, will from now be a standard item in the Human Settlements standing committee financial year plan.
"Our people are living in distress in flood plains and other unliveable conditions, we must then move with speed in relocating them and provide them a decent life,” the MMC said.
Mafana noted that in the last financial year, 2023/24 the metro was allocated R333 million and managed to spend within the stipulated timeframe R317 million.
During the second site visits on Tuesday, the standing committee visited projects in areas including Kariega, among others. – SAnews.gov.za
