“The current incentive scheme employed by the Municipality to entice those with outstanding tickets to pay is backwards,” says Councillor Rick Crouch. Currently, tardy payers are offered a reduction in the amount owing, but only after they have not paid for a year or more.
The DA’s position, which was raised at the Finance and Procurement Committee meeting on 19 July 2012, is that any incentive scheme should have a carrot and stick approach. It should offer the transgressor a discount off of the amount owning if paid within a pre-determined number of days and a doubling of the amount if paid after that pre-determined number of days.
“The current incentive makes absolutely no sense. What people are doing is not paying their tickets for months, or years in some cases, waiting for the incentive they know is coming. With the DA’s proposal they will have to pay those tickets much sooner and the city will get the much needed influx of cash into its coffers.”
The DA also proposed that the outstanding fines be attached to the vehicles registration; the individual would then have to pay the outstanding fines before they will be able to renew the registration of the vehicle.
Both the chair of the Committee and the Deputy City Manager: Revenue agreed to the DA’s proposal and a resolution was taken for an investigation into revising the current incentive scheme.
The DA’s proposal will go a long way in reducing the R1.4-billion in outstanding fines, R18-million of that is outstanding since 2005.