EASTERN CAPE - The Department of Public Works has got only 14 days, starting from today, to payout the R400 000 debt owed to Mbashe Local Municipality said The Portfolio Committee on Public Works.
A statement by the Committee reveals that, on 13 September, it took on an oversight visit to the Eastern Cape to assess the state of the Expanded Public Works Programme. In this regard, visititing Mbhashe Local Municipality was part of the programme.
The Acting Committee Chairperson, Freddie Adams said, "We are making this call because unlike other municipalities, Mbhashe Local Municipality does not only rely on the EPWP incentive grant from the department, but also utilises a portion of its already stretched R300 million budget from the National Treasury".
The Committee felt motivated when discovering that the municipality has created 920 job opportunities, exceeding the 725 job creation target for 2017/18 financial year. Other than that, The Committee applauded the municipality for establishing its own EPWP recruitment policy. "The Committee has noted that 2 385 work opportunities were created against the 3 244 five-year target between 2014/15 - 2017/18 financial years set by the national Department of Public Works," the statement read.