CITY Manger, Sibusiso Sithole told the Executive Committee of council this week that irregular expenditure by the city over the financial year, 2014/15, had been reduced from R295.8 million to R113.7 million.
He said the drop in irregular spending was due to the strict austerity measures the city has put in place to ensure that compliance with the Supply Chain Management policies are adhered to.
Sithole said that of this amount, R107.1 million was processed through the Bid Adjudication Committee in terms of Section 36 (1)(b) of the Supply Chain Management Policy with the balance of R6.6 million in the process of finalisation.
He said goods and services and value for money had been received for any expenditure above, and 90 per cent of the expenditure was due to the extension of contracts to ensure service delivery.
He said that the number of staff doing business with the city had also been reduced, with only 7 out of 24000 members of staff found to have municipal contracts.
“No councillors were found to be doing business with the Council. In cases of staff members who were found doing business with the city, disciplinary measures are underway,” he said.
Mayor James Nxumalo said the city had come a long way in reducing irregular expenditure.
“The role of our Oversight Committee, the Municipal Public Accounts Committee is critical to the ideal of creating a clean administration. We remain committed to ensuring that we continue on our path of good governance practices and that service delivery to our communities is not impacted,” he said.
