To follow up on the last article dated 8th of April 2013 “Bleeding millions” – the situation is even worse than anticipated. According to the latest financial report which was tabled at the Finance Portfolio Committee meeting on the 6th of May 2013, the total loss for the last 4 years was not the R300 million that was estimated from the figures previously supplied. The new figures which was confirmed with the Deputy Mayor and the Chief Financial Officer suggests an increasing loss of R436 504 688 over the past 4 years. What was also apparent from the report back by the Chief Financial Officer was that there exists no contingency funding after the builders guarantee on the Stadium structure runs out.
Senior officials and the Chief Financial Officer suggested that the city is intending to negotiate the future maintenance costs with a potential lessee. What is interesting from the figures is the Staff salaries of more than R8 million at a Stadium that is not “that operational” in terms of hosting events.
Under General expenses, Council spend more than R15 million on repairs last year, on what is considered to be a brand new “state of the art” Stadium. What happened to the builders warranty / guarantee? I suggest that an investigation be launched to possibly drill down deeper into what exactly is understood as “General Expenses”. With such a large salary bill, what is the purpose of consultants and outside contractors? Why can the existing staff not manage the services, in house?
Cllr Yagyah Adams
Cape Muslim Congress