Africa-Press – Botswana. Lobatse Town Council is operating under a constrained budget this financial year due to shortage of funds.
It is on such a backdrop that the town mayor, Mr Mosimanegape Dithebe, during a full council meeting on Tuesday, encouraged residents to pay rates.
Mr Dithebe said rates were an important source of revenue for the town’s council and he expressed concern that the council was lagging behind in terms of revenue collection.
He explained that their collection rate for the period between April and September was significantly below the target of 42 per cent.
“As of September 30, at total of P3 833 311 was collected against a target of P18 655 340, depicting 21 per cent collection,” he said.
Mr Dithebe added that the challenge of rate billing that the council had experienced over the past few months had been attended to.
“I now encourage councilors to encourage the community to come forth and pay their bills,” he said.
The mayor further informed the meeting that the council was operating under a constrained budget, with a recurrent budget allocation of P149 200 222 for the 2023/24 financial year.
He said a total of P60 060 305 was already spent as at September, which represented 40 per cent expenditure and translated to increased spending rate compared to the last quarter.
“We have an increased spending ,which is attributed to more tenders being awarded,” he said.
On the development budget, Mr Dithebe said they were allocated a total of P27 293 875 for implementation of development projects and programmes for the 2023/24 financial year.
He said development projects undertaken included refurbishment of council buildings for utilisation by SMMEs and refurbishment of the landfill warehouse. He said implementation of the projects was still at tender stage.
He added that new projects proposed under Constituency Community Projects (CCP) included two-kilometre upgrading of roads, 5.3 kilometres of road shoulder repairs and one kilometre patching of internal roads, among others.
On implementation of previous CCP projects, the mayor said it went well noting that such projects included installation of five tower lights, maintenance of Kgodisong Day Care Centre, maintenance of teachers’ houses at Pitikwe, paving of internal roads and construction of stormwater drainage at various locations in the town.
He said the completion of Peleng park was one of the projects not completed.
Mr Dithebe further said a total of P2.5 million was allocated to the council for maintenance of roads and electrical services in the town in the current financial year. He added that the council was also allocated P5 million under the Road Levy Fund.
“I am happy to say that all the projects funded under this programme have been completed,” he said.
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