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Enquiries: L Mokoena
Telephone: 012Â 336 6574
Reference: 6/2/2/6
MINISTER OF WATER AND ENVIRONMENTAL AFFAIRS
NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES: QUESTION 164 FOR WRITTEN REPLY
A draft reply to the above mentioned question asked by Ms AND Qikani (ANC-
EC) is attached for your consideration.
DIRECTOR-GENERAL (Acting)
DATE:
DRAFT REPLY APPROVED/AMENDED
MRS B E E MOLEWA, MP
MINISTER OF WATER AND ENVIRONMENTAL AFFAIRS
DATE:
NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES
FOR WRITTEN REPLY
QUESTION NO 164
DATE OF PUBLICATION IN INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER: 10 MAY 2013
(INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER NO. 12)
164. Mrs A N D Qikani (ANC-EC) to ask the Minister of Water and
Environmental Affairs: [(87]
Whether she will consider reviewing the current funding model for
providing funding to municipalities (details furnished); if not, (a)
why not and (b) what (i) controls and (ii) measures are in place to
ensure that municipalities do not shift the funds to other priorities
(details furnished); if so, what are her departmentâs plans in this
regard? CW226E
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REPLY:
The Minister and the Department of Water Affairs are not the
responsible authorities for the designing, reviewing and providing
funding model to the municipalities. Cooperative Governance and
Traditional Affairs (COGTA) and National Treasury are the responsible
authorities. Our task is to comment to the design and distribute once
Treasury allocate such funds through DWA. The Minister supports the
funding model where infrastructure projects are funded through
conditional Grants, which is the current model for infrastructure
support to municipalities. The Minister would also like to see more
accountability from municipalities in terms of how they use their
equitable share to ensure that the portion calculated for water
services is adequately used for the cost of basic water supply.
In terms of section 227 of the Constitution of the Republic of South
Africa (Act No. 108 of 1996), local government is entitled to an
equitable share of nationally raised revenue and that the local
government equitable share is an unconditional transfer.
a) The Department of Water Affairs (Department) ensures the
utilisation of funds allocated through the Regional Bulk
Infrastructure Grant (RBIG), and âThe water services operating
subsidyâ. The same will be done for the new Grant, which is the
Municipal Water Infrastructure Grant (MWIG) which will be
effective from 1 July 2013.
i. The controls put in place to ensure the above are as follows:
- Requirement that funding agreement is entered between the
Department and the relevant municipality.
- Requiring monthly progress reports on projects to be submitted
to the Department.
- The Departmentâs officials participate in regular site
meetings.
- Funds from the RBIG programme are only paid upon proof of
completed work.
- The Department undertakes quarterly and annual performance
evaluation inspections on all projects funded through RBIG and
issues such reports to the National Treasury.
ii. Additional measures that are taken are as follows:
- Withholding payments to municipalities not adhering to the
conditions of the funding.
- Re-allocating funds from municipalities that are not
performing or adhering to the conditions.
- Where possible, assisting municipalities in resolving any
constraints or challenges to any of the projects the funds are
intended for.
In conclusion, the Department is committing itself to making sure
that funds allocated to municipalities for water services
infrastructure projects that are controlled through various Grants
and Programmes are used for the intended purposes that they were
initially planned for in order to facilitate efficient, effective
and economic service delivery.
ii. Currently the funding provided to municipalities for
infrastructure is through conditional Grants. Some of the
conditional Grants are as follows:
a. Municipal Infrastructure Grant (MIG), controlled and
managed by the Department of Co-operative Governance
(DCoG).
b. Regional Bulk Infrastructure Grant (RBIG), managed by the
Department of Water Affairs (DWA).
c. Municipal Water Infrastructure Grant (MWIG), managed by
DWA.
iii. The equitable share is transferred by DCOG and the formula
used to allocate it among municipalities was reviewed in 2012
through a consultative process that was managed by DCOG,
National Treasury and the South African Local Government
Association (SALGA). The review included extensive
consultation with municipalities. The Minister of Water
Affairs and the DWA can only make proposals with regards to
the equitable share and how it is calculated and managed.
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