Maria David
ONGWEDIVA Town Council has tabled its provisional budget of N$147 million for the 2021/22 financial year on Tuesday.
The budget tabled has increased by 1.15% from about N$145 million in the 2020/21 financial year.
Tabling the budget, Ongwediva Town Mayor Taarah Shalyefu, stated that the budget subjected to approval by the Ministry of Urban and Rural Development.
According to him, council tariffs remain unchanged amidst the outbreak of COVID-19 that has affected the economy of the country. As such they are expected to operate on a cost-recovery basis.
“Our budget has been balanced as duly required with operating income, proceeds from the sale of erven, road maintenance refunds by Roads Fund Administration (RFA), Government subsidies, and minimal contributions from Council’s existing reserves,” he said.
He noted that all other things being equal, this approach would have no negative effects on Council’s operations.
Shalyefu explained that the council is determined to addressing the socio-economic challenges facing people, especially the delivery of serviced land and basic amenities, the upgrading of settlement areas to proclaim townships, the promotion of investment and local economic development, and the improvement of safety and social welfare, thus proposed budget.
He indicated that the budget will be financed by funds as per Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) 2021/22 amounting to N$ 2 million, Sale of erven amounting to N$ 5 million, Refunds by Roads Fund Administration amounting to N$2.1 million, operational revenues amounting to N$ 95.8 million and Council’s own reserves amounting to N$42 million.
Shalyefu revealed that included in the total expenditure of about N$ 147 million are provision for depreciation of N$ 12 million, provision for leave days of N$ 461000, provision for doubtful debts of N$ 12 million, and provision for leave days amounting to N$ 461 000 in compliance with the Council’s adopted International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS) two years ago.
Moreover, he stated that a considerable portion of the budget amounting to N$29.2 million is devoted to capital projects, representing about 20% of the total budget, whereas 80% is devoted to operational expenditure and provisions amounting to N$117.2 million.
He pointed out that they are committed to strive to deliver effective and efficient services and the residents’ expectations once resources are available.
