Durban — The KwaZulu-Natal portfolio committee on co-operative governance and traditional affairs (Cogta) has expressed its shock regarding the theft of municipal funds at the Endumeni Local Municipality while the parliamentary committee on Cogta called on departments to develop plans towards clean audits across the board.
KZN Cogta portfolio committee chairperson Zinhle Cele said the committee learnt about the corruption when it held its third Section 132 hearings with the Umzinyathi District Municipality and all local municipalities within the district.
The hearings are conducted to look into the 2021/22 audit outcomes, including reports on the financial status of municipalities as well as service delivery to communities.
Cele said the committee was shocked to learn about massive corruption which involves a municipal official accused of diverting payments from consumers to a personal bank account in the amount of R150 000.
For the diversion of funds from consumers to a personal bank account, criminal investigations and internal disciplinary proceedings are currently in progress, according to the Auditor-General’s report.
“The Cogta portfolio committee also noted the report tabled by the Auditor-General of South Africa before the portfolio committee, which indicated that three fraud cases were reported to the SAPS by the Endumeni Local Municipality relating to fraudulent qualifications, fraudulent expense claims and allegations,” Cele said.
She said the committee decided that the Endumeni Local Municipality must furnish the portfolio committee within seven days with a progress report on all the above-mentioned cases that were reported to the SAPS with case numbers to be detailed in the report to be submitted to the committee.
Details pertaining to the case must also be submitted to the committee, she said, along with the report so that the committee can be brought up to date on whether consequence management has been implemented by the Endumeni Local Municipality.
Cele added that the committee passed a resolution that it will contact the Community and Safety and Liaison portfolio committee within the KZN legislature to look into these cases. This should be done so that the commissioner can also look at these cases and provide feedback to the two portfolio committees – the Cogta and Community and Safety Liaison portfolio committees – in a joint portfolio committee sitting whose date is still to be determined and confirmed after consultation with the Legislature Programming Committee.
Meanwhile, the parliamentary committee on Cogta was briefed on Monday by the Office of the Auditor-General (AG) on the budgetary review and recommendations process relating to the department of Cogta and its entities for the 2021/22 financial year.
The committee was also briefed by Cogta Minister Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma on the annual reports and audited financial statements of the department, the Municipal Infrastructure Support Agent and the National Disaster Management Centre (NDMC) in respect of the 2021/22 financial year.
The audited financial performance information for the 2021/22 financial year remains largely unchanged from the previous financial year – with the Department of Co-operative Governance (DCoG) still the only auditee with qualified auditing findings.
The qualification areas amounting to five in the previous financial year have been reduced to three, and all of them relate to the Community Work Programme (CWP).
The committee informed the department that a qualified audit outcome is unacceptable.
The committee told the department to set targets for itself and it wants to see plans that lead to those targets being met. Such plans will indicate the commitment of the leadership of the department to obtaining a clean audit outcome, it said.
The committee noted that on service delivery performance against the 2021/22 annual performance plan (APP) targets, the DCoG has achieved 73% of its 2021/22 APP targets.
While this is an improvement from the 68% achieved in 2020/21, the committee said this is still the lowest achievement rate in the entire Cogta portfolio of auditees.
Daily News