Service delivery  sacrificed   as FTLM spent R36 MILLION on consultants 

BURGERSFORT

 With service delivery moving at a snail’s pace in Fetakgomo Tubatse Local Municipality (FTLM), this municipality has shockingly spent about R36.6 million on financial consultants to do basic functions like tax services.

The FTLM is amongst Limpopo municipalities that allegedly blew R280 million on financial consultants in the past auditing year.

The Auditor-General’s (AG’s) report has revealed that 15 municipalities in Limpopo, that included FTLM, paid a total of R180 million to consultants whose work was ineffective.
The expenditure on consultants demonstrates massive skills shortages in local government in Limpopo, which spends the most on consultants in the country.
The FTLM’s R36.6m figure, is the second-highest spend in the province, after  Mogalakwena municipality in the Waterberg district, which  forked out R44m, the highest amount paid in the province. The millions were spent to prepare municipal  statements and help officials manage assets.

The consultants hired at the FTLM were found to have been ineffective by the AG, despite walking away with more than R36 million.

AG Tsakani Maluleke said: “The amount that municipalities spent on consultants continued to increase, and most municipalities relied on consultants to prepare and/or review their financial statements because they did not have enough skilled resources in their finance units.”

She added, “Consultant costs for financial reporting increased by 6% to R279,87-million. Despite the high spend on financial reporting consultants, the investment has not had the desired impact as municipalities’ audit outcomes remained largely unchanged. It is also not evident whether the consultants transferred skills to municipal staff.”
Maluleke said last year, the provincial treasury and co-operative governance, human settlements and traditional affairs (Coghsta), supported by the premier’s office, committed to help municipalities reduce their use of consultants, but this support has not yet materialised.

This publication forwarded queries to the municipal spokesperson Mahlaku Komane, questioning her about the R36.6 million figure.
Komane had not yet responded to the questions forwarded to her at the time of going to press. This publication will do a follow-up on their responses, once received.