City announces N$5b budget
Focus on service delivery, infrastructure
The City of Windhoek (CoW) yesterday announced the approval of its 2023-24 budget of N$5 billion.The capital expenditure portion totals N$513 million, of which N$507 million has been approved – with approximately N$460 million earmarked for infrastructure and housing projects.
Windhoek mayor, Joseph Uapingene, said the budget focuses on the efficiency of service delivery, with the capital budget focusing on the maintenance of infrastructure and the creation of additional infrastructure in the areas of water and electricity to meet the needs of the growing city.
"The budget also makes significant provisions to ensure that our land delivery and council housing targets are met. The council deliberated on the budget during a workshop in May, to then table it for presentation to the line minister who ultimately had to approve it.
"Several interventions were also been identified in the last quarter to mitigate some of the challenges facing the CoW," he said.
Debt
Uapingene noted that the finance department will look at the municipality's debt book, which stood at N$1.2 billion on 31 October, of which N$963 million is overdue.
“The exercise seeks to identify the long outstanding debts considered non-collectible. After that, recommendations will be made for appropriate measures to clear the debt – one is to consider incentive strategies that encourage residents to pay their debts and thus provide the CoW and residents with relief from the current debt.”
The mayor also called on councillors to guard against taking a stand against "unfortunate events" that occurred during the past financial year and requested them to reflect on the way they handle information about the municipality.
"As board chairman, I would like to call on fellow board members to reflect on the way they handle sensitive information that can have far-reaching consequences that put the organization's image and reputation in jeopardy," he said.
"The unfortunate events that have taken place and played out over the past financial year and a half are just an example of the kind of behaviour that harms the organisation," added Uapingene.
In the meantime, a workshop on management - facilitated by the municipality's legal department - will take place in early 2024 to examine, among other things, the code of conduct and the roles and responsibilities of council members, he said.
"I am concerned about the alarmingly slow pace of execution of duties against our budget, which the cash flow constraints have further exacerbated; however, I believe this financial year will be better. That being said, the CoW is exploring various solutions for a smart city and information and communication technology to enhance our revenue collection efforts and enhance our service delivery value proposition."