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28 April 2022 For Public Comment: Third Adjustment Budget 2021/2022

28 April 2022 For Public Comment: Third Adjustment Budget 2021/2022

Notice 45/2022

Notice is hereby given that the Garden Route District Municipal Council’s Third Adjustment Budget for the period 2021/2022-2023/2024, was compiled in accordance with the Local Government: Municipal Finance Management Act 2003 (Act 56 of 2003).

This document was approved by the Garden Route District Municipality at a District Council meeting held on Monday, 26 April 2022. The document will be available for public inspection and comments on the GRDM municipal website www.gardenroute.gov.za from 29 April 2022.

Members of the public is invited to submit written comments or representations to the municipality in respect of this document. All comments and inputs must be directed to “The Municipal Manager, Garden Route District Municipality, 54 York Street, George 6530”.

Please contact the Budget Manager (Ms Louise Hoek) at 044 803 1300 with any enquiries.

M G Stratu
Municipal Manager
Garden Route District Municipality

21 February 2022 Public Notice: 2021/2022 Second Adjustment Budget – Open for Comment and Public Inspection

21 February 2022 Public Notice: 2021/2022 Second Adjustment Budget – Open for Comment and Public Inspection

Notice 23/2022

Notice is hereby given that the Garden Route District Municipal Council’s Second Adjustment Budget for the period 2021/2022-2023/2024, was compiled in accordance with the Local Government: Municipal Finance Management Act 2003 (Act 56 of 2003).

This document was approved by the Garden Route District Municipality at a District Council meeting held on Monday, 21 February 2022 and is available for public inspection and comments on the GRDM municipal website www.gardenroute.gov.za from 23 February 2022.

Members of the public are invited to submit written comments or representations to the municipality in respect of this document. Click here to view the official public notice.

All comments and inputs must be directed to:

The Municipal Manager
Garden Route District Municipality
54 York Street
GEORGE
6530

Please contact the Budget Manager (Ms Louise Hoek) at 044 803 1300 with any enquiries.

L Menze
Acting Municipal Manager
Garden Route District Municipality

29 October 2021 Media Release: Garden Route District Municipality improves its procurement practices to avoid Deviations

Media Release: Garden Route District Municipality improves its procurement practices to avoid Deviations

For Immediate Release
28 October 2021

Over the last few years, Garden Route District Municipality (GRDM) has improved significantly with the utilisation of deviations in its procurement processes.

According to GRDM Chief Financial Officer, Mr Jan-Willem de Jager, GRDM has invested significant time and effort in an attempt to reduce the amount of goods/services that had to be procured via deviations to the bare minimum. “Since 2017/2018 financial year, GRDM improved with a drop in deviations from ± R23 million to ±R2 million,” De Jager said.

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A deviation is a procurement process that falls within the ambit of Regulation 36 of the Municipal Supply Chain Management Regulations (Municipal Finance Management Act). Tebello Mpuru, Manager responsible for Stores, Data & Supply Chain Management at GRDM, explains: “It allows the Municipal Manager to dispense with the prescribed procurement processes established by the organisation’s Supply Management Policy of Council and to procure any required goods and services through any convenient process, provided that the reason for having to deviate falls within the allowed categories as per the legislation. This may include direct negotiations,” he said.

The SCM Regulations stipulates the following five (5) specific circumstances that legitimise the use of deviations:

  • In an emergency situation
  • If such goods or services are produced or available from a single provider only
  • For the acquisition of special works of art or historical objects where specifications are difficult to compile
  • Acquisitions of animals for zoos
  • In any other exceptional case where it is impractical or impossible to follow the official procurement process; and
  • To ratify any minor breaches of the procurement processes by an official or committee acting in terms of delegated powers or duties which are purely of technical nature.

The use of deviations for unjustifiable reasons leads to irregular expenditure. According to Mpuru, irregular expenditure due to the abuse of deviations, is frowned upon by stakeholders at all levels of the organisation, as the practice negatively affects the performance of the organisational. For that reason, this practice rarely ever escapes the public eye, as it creates a perception of intentional financial misconduct and the contravention of the relevant Municipal Finance Management Act (in a municipal context). On the question, why it is important not to follow the deviations route, Mpuru highlighted: “Through proper procurement planning by an organisation to put measures in place to have appropriate goods and service contracts for Council, a deviation would be an exceptional occurrence”. Each deviation would then allow the Council to update their procurement plan and put measures in place to avoid similar situations in the future, if possible. An event would rarely be entirely new; therefore, through proper planning, procurement contracts can be put in place ahead of time and ensure that minimal deviations can occur.

In further elaborating on the practice of deviating, De Jager explains that with emergencies that could still arise, considering that GRDM delivers disaster management and fire fighting services, would mean that some deviations would still be justifiably required. However “the organisation has shown great progress to identify every possible eventually for which we would be required to procure goods/services and has ensured that legislated procurement processes were followed to get adequate contracts in place for such goods/services”.  In closing, he highlighted: “The success of this drive to reduce deviations is evident from how the total annual deviations has decreased over the last number of years”.

Procurement is about Council openly going into the market to procure goods and services and allow the market to be treated fairly in responding to the needs of the state. Government’s intention is to solicit goods and services in the market without prejudice and allow the market to respond with the best possible offer to Government. A procurement process is designed to be transparent, fair, equitable, competitive and cost-effective to ensure the state utilises public resources in a manner that translates into value for money.

Mpuru advises that when goods or services are procured, one should do a market analysis and ensure that you are fairly familiarised with the approximate market rate for those goods and services. One cannot claim ignorance by purchasing goods and services that are priced at an unreasonable cost – “Government has limited funding, as such every cent that is spent should be value for money. Failure to do so could be deemed as financial negligence and could be deemed as a crime against the state and the people of this country”. Every cent spent belongs to the public and should therefore be treated with utmost care to avoid irregular or wasteful expenditure – limited resources should translate in eliminating inefficiencies and obtaining the best possible value out of the market.

Procurement is merely a translation of the execution of planned objectives. Therefore every cent in the organisation should be spent according to the plans of Council. Planning, therefore, requires a lot more thought and attention to detail to ensure that those entrusted with public funds have a clear plan on what programs and projects of Council they plan to execute in the most efficient manner possible.

“Ultimately we are public servants, and we are accountable to the public as a primary stakeholder to serve our communities. Failure to ensure efficient use of public resources ultimately means that we have failed society to derive the highest value possible with Government’s limited resources. Every action we do to add, speaks to the sustainability of public governance and the stability and growth of society” Mpuru emphasised. “Therefore being prudent means if we plan accordingly it can only be of benefit to society at large of which we are also beneficiaries of,” he concluded.

ENDS

2021 08 26 Notice: Roll-Over Adjustment Budget for the period 2021/2022-2023/2024

Notice 74/2021

ROLL-OVER ADJUSTMENT BUDGET 2021/2022

Notice is hereby given that the Garden Route District Municipal Council’s Roll-Over Adjustment Budget for the period 2021/2022-2023/2024, was compiled in accordance with the Local Government: Municipal Finance Management Act 2003 (Act 56 of 2003).

This document was approved by the Garden Route District Municipality at a District Council meeting held on Tuesday, 24 August 2021.

This document will be available for public inspection and comments on the GRDM municipal website www.gardenroute.gov.za from 26 August 2021.

Members of the public is invited to submit written comments or representations to the municipality in respect of this document. All comments and inputs must be directed to “The Municipal Manager, Garden Route District Municipality, 54 York Street, George 6530”.

Click to download/view the official notice.

Please contact the Budget Manager (Ms Louise Hoek) at 044 803 1300 with any enquiries.

M G Stratu
Municipal Manager
Garden Route District Municipality

28 May 2020 Media Release: Extension of SLA between AON (PTY) Ltd and Garden Route District Municipality for 12 months

Media Release: Extension of SLA between AON (PTY) Ltd and Garden Route District Municipality for 12 months

For Immediate Release
28 May 2020

Council has appointed AON (underwritten by Lion of Africa) during 2015/2016, after a competitive bidding process was followed (Tender E/02/15-16). AON was appointed for a 3 year period to provide insurance coverage to council. The tender was extended until 30 June 2020 and a formal tender process was initiated during February/March 2020, but then the COVID19 pandemic struck South Africa which placed the procurement process on hold. On 27 May 2020, the Garden Route District Municipal Council discussed and approved the extension for 12 months from 1 July 2020 – 30 June 2021 of the Service Level Agreement between AON (PTY) Ltd and Garden Route DM, having due regards for the requirements as per section 116 of the Municipal Finance Management Act 56 of 2003.

AON is willing to continue to render the contracted insurance services to Garden Route District Municipality for the 12 month extension period.

In terms of Section 116 of the Municipal Finance Management Act, Act 56 of 2003, a contract of agreement procured through the Supply Chain Management policy, may be amended by the parties, but only after the local community has been given reasonable notice of the intention to amend the contract or agreement.

The local community is henceforth invited to provide comments, if any, to Mr Monde Stratu, Municipal Manager, Garden Route District Municipality, via e-mail: info@gardenroute.gov.za before 15 June 2020.

For any information about the above, contact the Manager: BTO/AFS/Assets Ms. L Hoek at louise@gardenroute.gov.za or Senior Accountant: Assets Mr J Samery at john@gardenroute.gov.za, telephone: 044 803 1325