The DA has slated the uMgungundlovu district municipality for spending more than R11 million to “hire” vehicles in the past three financial years.
But the municipality says the money that was used to lease vehicles was far less than would have been spent if it had bought them.
Provincial DA leader Sizwe Mchunu said it was unacceptable that residents had to pick-up the exorbitant “car-hire tab” and called on MEC for Co-operative Governance Nomusa Dube to act and ensure that this “ongoing mismanagement” was dealt with swiftly.
The figures were revealed in a response from Dube after the DA had questioned the municipality’s use of hired vehicles in the past five years.
The reply revealed the municipality did not have figures for vehicle hire in the 2007/2008 and 2008/2009 financial years, as it did not have an automated system at the time to capture the amounts.
When the system was put in place, it revealed that the municipality spent R2 976 232.83 in 2009/2010, R5 467 953.81 in 2010/2011 and R2 777 493.46 in 2011/2012 on hiring cars.
In total, over R11m was spent as part of a service agreement between the municipality and a government garage, G-Fleet, for the leasing of the vehicles.
A total of 57 cars were “hired” for various municipal officials between 2009 and May this year. - The Mercury