R480 Million wasteful expenditure marred SDM
SEKHUKHUNE
The Socialist Agenda of Dispossessed Africans (SADA), in Sekhukhune District Municipality (SDM), wants consequences against Municipal Manager (MM), Maureen Ntshudisane, for the fruitless and wasteful expenditure to the tune of R480 Million.
This was revealed in the Municipal Public Accounts Committee’s (MPAC), Draft Oversight Report on the 2020/21 Draft Annual Report that was tabled in a council meeting held on the 29 June 2022.
SADA Councillor in SDM, Lethabile Joseph Kgwedi, said the party will demand Executive Mayor Cllr Julia Mathebe to suspend Ntshudisane for fruitless and wasteful expenditure on litigation, water projects losses, rental and security services spending incurred in the municipality.
“We demand the accounting officer to be suspended and investigated as she failed to exercise her financial responsibilities and general financial management functions as prescribed by Municipal Finance Management Act 56, 2003, (MFMA), that culminated in the municipality spending nearly R480 million for non-service delivery purposes,” Kgwedi said.
He added that some of the main contributors towards this reckless financial mismanagement and abuse of authority includes several tenders, which were awarded to persons or relatives of persons employed by the state in contravention of section(s) 45 and 46 of the Municipal Supply Chain Management (SCM) Regulations.
“It was also revealed that contracts were awarded to bidders who were not adjudicated by the Bid Adjudication Committee, as required by section 29(1)(a)(b) of Municipal SCM Regulations. Some of the goods and services of a transaction values above R200 000, were procured without inviting competitive bids as required by section 19(a) of Municipal SCM Regulations,” he said.
According to Kgwedi, deviations were approved by the accounting officer, even though it was not impractical to invite competitive bidding in contravention of section 36(1) of Municipal SCM Regulations.
“Quotations were accepted from bidders whose tax matters had not been declared by the South African Revenue Services (SARS) as envisaged by section 43 of Municipal SCM Regulations. The municipality spent nearly R41 Million for security purposes that went into the pockets of individuals and did not improve the lives of ordinary workers,” he said.
Kgwedi indicated that the municipality spent nearly R64 Million and R88 Million on rental services and water losses respectively, in the previous financial year even though communities at the ground do not have water.
“SADA is more of concerned that no effective steps were taken by the accounting officer to probe these expenditures as required by Section 62 of the MFMA and in defiance of the recommendations of the Auditor General’s audit action, which prescribes steps to be taken to prevent these expenditures and other losses that the municipality may incur and determine if any person is liable for the expenditure as required by Section 32 of the MFMA,” he said.
Kgwedi said SADA sees an apparent need for effective consequence management in the municipality, in order to put an end to the mismanagement of the public purse, abuse of public authority, corruption, maladministration and tender irregularities.
“It is abundantly clear that the municipality does not want to hold officials accountable but instead, allows these politically connected bureaucrats to turn the institution into a corruption hub. It is for this reasons that SADA urges the executive mayor to take urgent action against the accounting officer for failing to execute her fiduciary and general financial management functions,” he said.
Kgwedi said SADA is also considering to lay criminal charges against the accounting officer, as guided by section 171(1)(2) of MFMA.
Communications Manager in Sekhukhune District Municipality, Khomotso Ndlovu, said the municipality will comment after a full report from MPAC is brought to the council with recommendations.
