2.6 OVERVIEW OF BUDGET FUNDING
2.6.4 CASHBACKED RESERVES OR ACCUMULATED SURPLUS RECONCILIATION
Table 55: MBRR A8 – Cashbacked reserves or accumulated surplus reconciliation
Description 2011/12 2012/13 2013/14
R thousand Audited
Outcome
Audited Outcome
Audited Outcome
Original Budget
Adjusted Budget
Full Year Forecast
Budget Year 2015/16
Budget Year +1 2016/17
Budget Year +2 2017/18 Cash and investments available
Cash/cash equivalents at the y ear end 927 954 1 322 122 797 248 2 664 942 1 175 775 1 175 775 1 852 226 2 882 642 4 451 708 Other current investments > 90 days (0) – – – – – – – – Non current assets - Investments 87 623 86 540 40 219 207 377 100 711 100 711 44 110 80 255 85 038 Cash and investments available: 1 015 577 1 408 662 837 467 2 872 319 1 276 486 1 276 486 1 896 336 2 962 897 4 536 746
Application of cash and investments
Unspent conditional transfers 317 811 125 330 132 498 – 13 250 13 250 – – – Unspent borrowing – – – – – – – – – Statutory requirements – – – – 46 835 46 835 49 551 52 276 55 047 Other working capital requirements 1 221 079 1 784 699 2 026 359 1 571 899 1 924 718 1 924 718 1 534 283 1 565 305 1 641 751 Other prov isions 378 486 194 462 403 883 28 495 93 960 93 960 147 827 153 677 159 501 Long term inv estments committed 502 477 340 607 450 854 803 928 612 810 612 810 803 928 1 185 143 1 671 313 Reserves to be backed by cash/investments 148 309 105 096 71 953 182 348 72 577 72 577 73 043 73 530 74 037 Total Application of cash and investments: 2 568 161 2 550 195 3 085 548 2 586 669 2 764 149 2 764 149 2 608 632 3 029 931 3 601 649 Current Year 2014/15 2015/16 Medium Term Revenue &
Expenditure Framework
From the table above it is clear that the available cash and investments total R1,9 billion for the 2015/16 financial year and increase to R4,5 billion by 2017/18, including the projected cash and cash equivalents as determined by the cash flow forecast. The application of this funding is broken down as follows:
• Unspent conditional transfers (grants) are automatically assumed to be an obligation because the Municipality has received government transfers in advance of meeting the conditions. In terms of the Division of Revenue Act (DoRA), unless there are special circumstances, the Municipality is obligated to return unspent conditional grant funds to the national revenue fund at the end of the financial year. The Municipality is required to supply the relevant transferring authority with a detailed analysis of the unspent grants as well as an action plan for spending the grants. For the 2015/16 financial year, no provision has been made for this liability because the total unspent conditional grant liability of R13,3 million has been factored into the City’s 2014/15 adjustment budget. The City has received the necessary rollover approval from the relevant transferring authority, because the funding appropriation relating to the unspent conditional grants could be justified.
• There is no unspent borrowing from the previous financial years because any reduction in spending on the capital programme will result in an adjusted funding mix with regard to own funding.
• The main purpose of other working capital is to ensure that sufficient funds are available to meet obligations as they fall due. A key challenge is the mismatch in timing between receiving funds from debtors and payments due to employees and creditors. High levels of debtor non- payment and receipt delays will require more working capital, which could result in cash flow challenges.
• Long-term investments consist primarily of sinking funds for the repayment of future borrowings.
The sinking fund value is held within long-term investments and must be “held to maturity”. It is not to be utilised for any other purposes.
• Most reserve fund cashbacking is discretionary in nature, but the reserve funds are not available to support a budget unless they are cashbacked. Currently, the reserve funds are not fully cashbacked. The level of cashbacking is directly informed by the Municipality’s Cash Backing Policy.
As part of the budgeting and planning guidelines that informed the compilation of the 2015/16 MTREF, the objective of the medium-term framework was to achieve a funded budget in 2017/18, aligned with Sections 18 and 19 of the MFMA.
Figure 12: Cash and cash equivalents or cashbacked reserves and accumulated funds
Funding compliance measurement
The National Treasury requires that the Municipality assesses its financial sustainability against 14 different measures that examine various aspects of the Municipality’s financial health. These measures are given in the table below. All the information comes directly from the annual budgeted statements for financial performance, financial position and cash flows. The table essentially measures the degree to which the proposed budget complies with the funding requirements of the MFMA. Each of the measures is discussed below.
Table 56: MBRR SA10 – Funding compliance measurement
2.6.5.1 Cash or cash-equivalent position
The City’s forecasted cash position was discussed as part of the budgeted cash flow statement. A
“positive” cash position for each year of the MTREF would generally be a minimum requirement, subject to the planned application of these funds, such as cashbacking of reserves and working capital requirements. The forecasted cash and cash equivalents at year end for the 2015/16 MTREF indicate R1,9 billion, R2,9 billion and R4,5 billion for each respective financial year.
2.6.5.2 Cash plus investments less application of funds
This measure indicates how the Municipality has applied the available cash and investments identified in the budgeted cash flow statement. The detailed reconciliation of the cashbacked reserves or surpluses is contained in MBRR A8 above.
2.6.5.3 Monthly average payments covered by cash or cash equivalents
This measures the ability of the Municipality to honour short term obligations. The ratio has increased from the 2011/12 to 2015/16 period, moving from 0,7 to 1,0. The Municipality’s improving cash position causes the ratio to move upwards to 2,0 for the period ending 2017/18. This indicates that the Municipality will be able to meet monthly payments when they are due.
2.6.5.4 Surplus or deficit excluding depreciation offsets
A surplus or deficit is achieved by offsetting the amount of depreciation related to externally funded assets. For the 2015/16 MTREF, the indicative outcome is a surplus of R3,0 billion, R3,2 billion and R3,5 billion. The community therefore contributes sufficiently through rates and service charges to the economic benefit that they receive.
2.6.5.5 Property rates or service charge revenue as a percentage increase less macro-inflation target
This measure indicates whether the Municipality contributes appropriately to achieving national inflation targets. It is based on the increase in “revenue”, which will include both the tariff change and any assumptions about real growth such as new property development, services consumption growth, etc.
The factor is calculated by deducting the maximum macroeconomic inflation target increase (between 3% and 6%). The result is an approximation of the real increase in revenue. From the table above, it can be seen that the percentage growth totals are 2,6%, 2,8% and 2,8% for the respective financial years of the 2014/15 MTREF.
2.6.5.6 Cash receipts as a percentage of ratepayers and other revenue
This factor is a macro-measure of the rate at which funds are “collected”. This measure analyses the underlying assumed collection rate for the MTREF to determine the relevance and credibility of the assumptions contained in the budget. It can be seen that the outcome is at 91,6% for the medium-term.
2.6.5.7 Debt impairment expense as a percentage of billable revenue
This factor measures whether the provision for debt impairment is being adequately funded. It is based on the underlying assumption that the provision for debt impairment (doubtful and bad debts) has to be increased to offset undercollection of billed revenues. The provision has been appropriated at 4,9%, 7,5% and 7,5% for the 2015/16, 2016/17 and 2017/18 financial years respectively.
2.6.5.8 Capital payments as a percentage of capital expenditure
This measure determines whether the timing of payments has been considered when forecasting the cash position. It can be seen that a 98,0% timing discount per year has been factored into the cash position forecasted over the MTREF. The Municipality aims to keep this at an achievable level (based on historic performance trends) through strict compliance with the legislative requirement that debtors should be paid within 30 days.
2.6.5.9 Borrowing as a percentage of capital expenditure (excluding transfers, grants and contributions)
This measurement determines the proportion of a municipality’s “own-funded‟ capital expenditure budget that is being funded from borrowed funds to confirm MFMA compliance. Externally funded expenditure (by transfers, grants and contributions) has been excluded. It can be seen that borrowing equates to 85,5%, 80,8% and 98,0% of own-funded capital per annum over the medium-term.
2.6.5.11 Consumer debtors change (Current and non-current)
These measures ascertain whether budgeted reductions of outstanding debtors are realistic. There are two measures shown for this factor: the change in current debtors and the change in long-term receivables, both from the budgeted financial position.
2.6.5.12 Repairs and maintenance expenditure level
This measure is important within the context of funding measures criteria. This is because a trend indicating that insufficient funds are being committed to asset repair could also indicate that the overall budget is not credible and/or sustainable in the medium to long term because the revenue budget is not being protected. Details of the City’s strategy pertaining to asset management and repairs and maintenance are contained in MBRR SA34c.
2.6.5.13 Asset renewal/rehabilitation expenditure level
This measure has a similar objective to the previous objective relating to repairs and maintenance. A requirement of the detailed capital budget (since MFMA Circular 28, which was issued in December 2005) is to categorise each capital project as a new asset or a renewal or rehabilitation project. The objective is to summarise and understand the proportion of budgets being provided for new assets as well as asset sustainability. A declining or low level of renewal funding may indicate that a budget is not credible and/or sustainable and future revenue is not being protected, similar to the justification for
“repairs and maintenance” budgets. Further details in this regard are contained in MBRR SA34b. It is clear from the table above that the City is investing in the renewal of its assets, because an average of 44,2% for 2015/16 (43,1%, 43,8% and 45,7% for the applicable three years respectively) is maintained over the medium term.