Cape Town - Parliament's cooperative governance and traditional affairs (Cogta) portfolio committee has expressed concern at the state of affairs in the Dr JS Moroka Local Municipality at Siyabuswa and the Lekwa Local Municipality at Standerton in Mpumalanga.
On Friday, the committee heard from Bomkazi Bhobho of the office of the auditor general that audit outcomes at Dr JS Moroka Local Municipality continued to regress, committee chairperson Faith Muthambi said in a statement.
In the 2016/17 financial year, the municipality received a qualified report with findings. In 2017/18 the report was adverse with findings, and the report for 2018/19 had not been finalised as the audit was paused in October 2019 due to threats of violence to the team of auditors.
Dr JS Moroka municipality was asked by members of the committee to account for R1.3 billion unauthorised, irregular, and fruitless expenditure. The delegation of the municipality told the committee that the municipality’s chief financial officer (CFO) had been on suspension since 2018 and the investigations into the alleged corruption were at a final stage.
The committee expressed concern over what it called the "high dependency" of the municipality on consultants while officials were employed by the municipality and paid salaries for the work actually carried out by the consultants. The municipal manager needed to account for this unnecessary spending, she said.
The committee also asked the municipality to present a breakdown report on how it spent R500 million to procure goods and services for coronavirus (Covid-19)-related initiatives.
Meanwhile, the Lekwa municipality received R1 million for Covid-19-related expenses, but only R300 000 had been spent, despite residents in some areas in the municipality having no access to water for two weeks.
"The committee also heard that water tanks gathered dust at Lekwa municipality, as there were no truck drivers to deliver water to the people in the communities. The committee asked the municipality to submit to it a list of all water tankers and their location by next Tuesday," she said.
It emerged during the presentation that the municipality experienced "a problem of political instability that grossly affects service delivery in the municipality since 2018". The committee heard that there was a serious lack of water in the municipality, sewage spillages, roads riddled with potholes, and problems of electricity. In addition, the municipality had been experiencing "labour unrest" for five weeks.
"Mpumalanga’s MEC for treasury Mr Petrus Ngomane reassured the committee that the provincial departments of treasury and cooperative governance are working closely to improve performance of the municipality.
"Mr Ngomane told the committee that the financial recovery plan (FRP), which is part of the national and provincial governments’ intervention strategy to assist municipalities to become financially stable and provide services to communities on a sustainable basis, has not been institutionalised in Mpumalanga," Muthambi said.
African News Agency (ANA)