Letter: Poor service due to poor management
Decades of failed cadre deployment policies and neglect of infrastructure have brought Limpopo municipalities to their knees.
Desiree van der Walt, member of parliament and DA Provincial Spokesperson for CoGHSTA, writes:
The DA will write to the MEC for CoGHSTA, Basikopo Makamu to request a comprehensive plan to improve Limpopo’s ailing municipalities.
In the Auditor General’s (AG) consolidated report on the local government audit outcomes for the year 2021-2022, released on Wednesday, 31 May 2023, the AG expressed concerns about inadequate financial management and oversight which led to audit outcomes remaining largely unchanged as well as delays in service delivery.
Municipalities continue to over-rely on consultants, and the province has spent R1,13 billion on financial reporting, including R874,99 million on salaries for finance officials and R263,18 million for financial reporting consultants, mainly because finance unit’s officials lacked skills to prepare credible financial statements.
Limpopo’s spending on financial consultants is the third highest in the country; only KwaZulu Natal (R309,26 million) and North West Province (R282,33 million) spent more.
Despite the exorbitant outsourcing, only four municipalities were able to submit credible financial statements.
The unauthorized expenditure of R2,57 billion and fruitless and wasteful expenditure of R160 million remains unacceptably high.
The five municipalities that were the main culprits for the R1,68 billion in irregular expenditure were Mopani and Vhembe district municipalities and Polokwane, Mokgalakwena and Maruleng local municipalities.
The AG further expressed concern about the delays in consequence management due to slow or no investigations into irregular expenditure which led to an irregular expenditure closing balance of R7,11 billion.
Decades of failed cadre deployment policies and neglect of infrastructure have brought Limpopo municipalities to their knees.
Municipalities spent a combined R606,14 million on infrastructure repairs, 1.8% of the total value of infrastructure assets; well below the 8% threshold set by the National Treasury.
We call on MEC Makamu to explain how he will utilize his constitutional mandate to assist municipalities on the verge of collapse and to deliver services to communities, some of whom have never had running water during our democracy.
