The Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI) has reiterated its commitment to pay municipalities which provide services to government buildings, on time.
The department on Tuesday said an amount of R170 146 279.32, as of July 31, was under investigation, as it was in the process of performing reconciliation with the municipalities to ensure correct payment.
Currently, in terms of payments to municipalities that provide municipal services and property rates, of the total of 257 municipalities, the department received age analysis reports from 210 municipalities where services are rendered.
As of July 31, the DPWI had engaged municipalities, which had resulted in verification. The department confirmed an amount of R83 319 809 being owed to municipalities for municipal services rendered and property rates.
“The department is waiting for municipalities to submit invoices, and payments will be processed as soon as invoices are received,” a spokesman said.
It added that an amount of around R67.2 million had been billed as an annual invoice, which the department pays programmatically on a monthly basis. It does not pay in advance.
An amount of just over R12m was also incorrectly billed to the department, despite numerous communications with the municipalities.
“To address disputes under the R12m [mark], the DPWI is engaging municipalities to waive the interest linked to properties of other custodians, and advising municipalities to direct the invoices to the rightful owners for future payments.
“An amount of just over R324.5m is also in dispute in terms of property rates and taxes, as at July 31,” the department said.
To address these disputes, the DPWI is taking the following action:
• Requesting the municipalities to waive the uncorroborated interest.
• Verifying ownership/custodianship of the properties submitted (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).
• A process of subdividing or surveying these properties is being considered but more information is still required from municipalities to target those causing arrears/backlog debt.
• Undertaking a pilot surveying project in Limpopo to ensure that ownership of State properties is corrected. Lessons learned from the process will be implemented in other provinces when funds are identified.
“The DPWI processes all valid and verified invoices received within the stipulated timeframe indicated by municipalities since their invoices are due and payable within the regulated 30 days of receipt of invoice.
“Notwithstanding the above-mentioned, the DPWI has made payments across all 257 municipalities for municipal services and property rates to the value of R1.26 billion from April 2022 to July 2022,” the department said.
The total amount paid for municipal services and property rates to all municipalities during the month of July amounts to R228m.
The rate of invoices paid within 30 days increased from 96% in June to 98% in July.
The department said this was a clear demonstration of continuous endeavours by the DPWI to ensure that all valid invoices from municipalities were settled timeously.
With regard to the entities reporting to the department, it said it currently did not have any debt owed to municipalities in this regard. – SAnews.gov.za
