Durban — KwaZulu-Natal Public Works and Infrastructure is walking tall after its financial turnaround strategy yields results.
The department under MEC Martin Meyer and acting department head Dr Vish Govender has collected more than R500 million from the debtors and paid the same amount to its creditors, primarily contractors owed by the department before the new administration.
Speaking to the Daily News on Wednesday, an excited Govender attributed the achievement to the 41-member rapid response team he appointed to deal with problems that were inherited by the new administration. He said part of the team’s priority was to ensure that it collected money from the debtors while at the same time ensuring that creditors were being paid rapidly.
“We are happy to report to the public that we have turned the corner. Collecting more than R500 million from your debtors and at the same time paying your creditors the same amount of the money within such a short period is not a small thing, so well done to my team,” said Govender.
He said when the new administration took over three months ago, it found that the department was owed R900 million while it owed about R700 million to its creditors. He added that with this achievement, currently the department owes contractors only R125 million while it was still owed R400 million by the client departments.
Govender further stated that the collection of R500 million by his team helped the department to bring its R350 million overdraft back to what it was, adding that because of the non-payment, the department was forced to pay its creditors from the overdraft.
The team was appointed for the period of 60 days and its term is coming to an end this week, however, Govender says he would extend its term but with only 11 members since much of the work has been done.
In a statement issued by the department, it said it was the MEC’s pledge to the public that within 100 days in office, he would modify the financial model for contractor payment and adopt efforts to reduce service provider payment delays.
It added that the adverse consequences of the delays also impeded the timely delivery of infrastructure projects, while some contractors abandoned work on active sites, which had a severe impact on sub-contractors.
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