The eThekwini municipality’s 2010/2011 budget performance report revealed that it had underspent by about R2 billion, according to a report last Thursday.

The budget report also showed that the municipality recently borrowed R1 billion to fund infrastructure projects, the Mercury reported.

Auditor-General Terence Nombembe’s report reflected that eThekwini had incurred irregular expenditure of about R1.3 billion in the 2010/2011 financial year.

According to the newspaper opposition parties called for better planning and management when the figures were made public on Wednesday.

The figures were released to the KwaZulu-Natal public accounts committee (Scopa) last month.

Democratic Alliance MPL George Mari said the municipality’s housing budget was underspent by 45% resulting in only half of its delivery target being met.

Minority Front councillor Patrick Pillay was quoted as saying: “Our roads are riddled with potholes and people in some areas are living in squalor.

“The level of underspending is unacceptable and the city manager needs to explain how this is possible”.

Municipality spokesperson Thabo Mofokeng said underspending was caused by the issues of supply-chain management in the housing unit were some contracts had to be reviewed.

Source: Fin24