21 October 2015 Volume :3 Issue :48

Presentation by eThekwini Municipality Official Explores the Narrow Funding Gap in Local Government

School of Management, Information Technology academics Professor Purshottama Reddy (left) and Professor Professor Brian McArthur (right) with Mr Krish Kumar.

eThekwini Municipality’s Chief Financial Officer Mr Krish Kumar’s passion for finding solutions to the narrow funding gap in local government was obvious when he spoke on the topic at UKZN.

Kumar’s address was titled: “Narrowing the Municipal Funding Gap: A Metropolitan Perspective in South Africa”, which was his topic for a Masters of Administration degree which he now plans to explore further in a PhD.

Kumar’s presentation was on how municipal expenditure impacts on service delivery and how metro councils need to improve their productivity and focus expenditure more on economic, social and rehabilitation needs if they are to overcome the challenges of service delivery backlogs.

‘The rapid growth of urbanisation, primary health care, unemployment and housing are areas of major concern,’ said Kumar.

‘When it comes to free housing, we have created this ideology that everyone will get a free house and how we move on from this as a municipality is becoming a problem. I believe that as the municipality we should be spending more money on economic growth. As well as securing funds through the maximizing development levies and local business tax to address the challenges we are facing. My suggestion is that all metropolitan councils need to have a uniform system for determining service delivery backlogs.’

Kumar’s presentation was followed by a question and answer session where academics had the opportunity to ask Kumar about issues such as steering economic growth through local economic growth, urbanisation, and raising foreign tax.

The Academic Leader for Research in the School of Management, Information Technology and Governance, Professor Brian McArthur, said the School was looking forward to hosting further multidisciplinary research seminars.

Thandiwe Jumo

author : .
author email : .