Finance
(1)(a) What is the current status of the Financial Recovery Plan for the Beaufort West Municipality and (b) how does it address the settlement of historical debt;
(2)whether a certain person, whose name has been furnished to her Department for the purpose of her reply, has been included as this person’s claim is part of the Municipality’s outstanding creditor obligations; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details;
(3)whether she is aware of a letter by the then Minister of Finance and Economic Opportunity, Minister Maynier, informing the Municipality to include the debt of the person in (2) above for settlement as part of the Financial Recovery Plan; if so, why did the Municipality not pay the claim?
(a) Beaufort West is currently on Phase 2 (Stabilisation Phase) of implementing the
Financial Recovery Plan.
(b) All the major creditors have been settled or have payment arrangements in place that
are being adhered to by the Municipality. However, some creditors have disputed
contracts. In these cases, the Municipality has followed legal processes to try to resolve
the disputes.
(2) The Municipality has adequately responded to the service provider in question.
Provincial Treasury has seen a copy of the Municipality’s response to the person referred
to in the question. The response informs the claimant that, “After in-depth discussion it
was decided to recommend to Council not to entertain this matter any further, because of
the possible legal precedent and the extremely long time that has lapsed since the end of
the test contract.”
(3) Provincial Treasury wrote to the legal representative of the person referred to in the
question informing them that the municipality must consider all claims and assess their
veracity. The Municipality has assessed the veracity of this claim and concluded that it is
not a valid claim.
