The Namibia Economist

City collect funds owed

The City of Windhoek is in the process of submitting a detailed list of arrears of all government institutions to the Ministry of Finance for consideration and payment before the end of their financial year, says Roger Gertze, strategic executive of finance at the City of Windhoek.
The move forms part of ongoing efforts by the City of Windhoek to recover finances and collect funds owed to the municipality for services rendered to Windhoek residents, the business community and government institutions and parastals.
According to Gertze, the total debt owed to the City as at 31 December 2011 stands at N$330 million.
“Of this amount, N$51 192 743 is owed by the government and parastatals, residents owe an amount of N$119 151 038 and business’s an amount N$30 044 000,” he said.
“We would advise that the situation be assessed after three months,” Gertze added.
At the council meeting held in September last year, it was revealed that residents, public offices, agencies and corporate clients owe the City of Windhoek over N$ 300 million for unpaid property taxes and municipal utility bills, forcing the City to dig further into its pockets to pay for the bulk services and operations.
This made it hard for the City to operate and provide municipal services to residents.
As of 28 September 2011, the total debts outstanding amounted to N$322 million, which increased to N$330 million by year-end.
At the time, the public offices, which comprises of government ministries owed the City about N$50 million, individual residents owed N$ 128 million while the corporate clients owed the City N$144 million.
Gertze said these outstanding bills forces the municipality to disconnect services on a daily basis.
He added that the payment of municipal accounts will ensure that service delivery is enhanced and that the City can only execute its mandate if residents honour their commitments towards the City.
“We would further like to thank those residents be it government ministries, parastatals, businesses and residential clients who do pay their accounts on time and we would like to urge them to continue to do so going forward. We would also like to request residents that are in arrears with their municipal accounts to contact our Debt Management Division to make arrangements to pay their outstanding dues,” Gertze said.

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