WHAT ROLE DOES THE MUNICIPAL INFRASTRUCTURE GRANT (MIG) PLAY IN THE CASH-STRAPPED MAKANA MUNICIPALITY (MM)?
07 April 2017
By Lungile Penxa
The Municipal Infrastructure Grant (MIG) is a conditional grant from the national government that goes to local government for maintaining and improving municipal infrastructure. The Municipal Finance Governance (MFG) programme of the Eastern Cape Provincial Treasury monitors the MIG expenditure, because it affects the allocation of resources from the National Fiscus.
Within the Makana Municipality jurisdiction, it is widely known that Makana Municipality has ageing infrastructure. In the 2015/16 financial year, the Municipality was allocated their portion of the MIG to maintain and improve their infrastructure. Has the Municipality appropriately spent their MIG on its infrastructure? What was prioritised in the spending? It was definitely not roads because the results are not positively showing. If the MIG allocations for 2015/16 financial year were appropriately and fully spent, this guarantees to National & Provincial Treasuries that Makana Municipality is needy and deserves to be allocated MIG from the National – Provincial Budget for 2017/18 financial year. If the MIG for 2015/16 financial year was inappropriately spent, the Eastern Cape Provincial Treasury makes proposals for rescheduling of the unspent grants to fund needy municipalities. Can the financially needy Makana Municipality afford to inappropriately spend their MIG? Can they afford to have the balance of their MIG taken and given to other needy municipalities?