PLETTENBERG BAY NEWS - The Plett Ratepayers and Residents' Association has filed two new Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) requests to extract information from Bitou Municipality.
The latest applications to be made are for information relating to refuse removal and recycling in Bitou and the R1m spent on Youth Day and Women's Day celebrations by the municipality.
"Due to a lack of responsiveness from Bitou Municipality, the Ratepayers have stepped up their applications for information through PAIAs," said Steve Pattinson, the Ratepayers chairman.
"We first ask questions in a letter (or two) to the mayor and municipal manager to clarify what is going on and ask for an explanation. Inevitably that doesn't work, so we are faced with following the formal legal approach as required by PAIA," Pattinson explained.
"It is our role as the Ratepayers' Association to determine the real and honest facts when something doesn't look right, and then call for a correction to ensure good governance. We cannot take part in participative governance unless we have the full information and this appears to be the only way to get it," said Pattinson in a newsletter to ratepayers.
Pattinson indicated that they will continue to provide positive input to the municipality, such as their service delivery reports and budget oversight reports, but will also continue to question the municipality when something doesn't look right.
On refuse removal and recycling: "We have been asking for years for zero-based budgeting to see what the actual cost of delivering the service is and why Bitou's cost is so much higher than other towns; for a breakdown of how the budget is spent to justify a 17,2% tariff increase; allegedly 8% of that increase is going to a provision for a future landfill rehabilitation, so we want to know where the money will be held in reserve and why other towns who share the same landfill have not made such a provision.
"We also want to know why the recycling tender was not done timeously to avoid these five months of no recycling service, yet we are still paying for it."
On Youth Day and Women's Day celebrations: "Was spending almost R1m on these events the best use of public funds? Bitou's own cost containment policy does not allow for such events and catering. Was the expenditure budgeted for or unauthorised? Would a women's shelter not have been of more lasting value, or school supplies for the youth?" asked Pattinson.
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