Report unveils irregularities at Polokwane municipality

A Polokwane municipality employee has allegedly been receiving a full salary for five years without doing any work.

A forensic report compiled by law firm Bowman Gilfillan has uncovered serious malfeasance and corruption among staff at the municipality.

It was presented to the council last week.

Irregularities cost Polokwane millions

According to the report, eight full-time employees were simultaneously on the Extended Public Works Programme payroll.

Others were found to be on unauthorised extended sick leave and questionable overtime, costing the municipality millions of rands every year.

Although the municipality said relevant disciplinary measures and processes to recoup the lost money are underway, opposition parties are spitting fire and demanding action to be taken immediately.

The third-biggest political party in the Polokwane municipal council, the DA, said the findings were shocking.

DA caucus leader Jacques Joubert said: “This is indicative of mismanagement and entrenched corrupt practices deeply rooted within the municipality.

“The municipality must find ways to cut overtime and create more jobs for the people of Polokwane at the same time.”

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Ghost workers, questionable overtime and sick leave feature

The municipality told The Citizen this month that the council initiated the forensic investigation following serious concerns raised by the office of the auditor general and concerns raised by the internal audit committee on a number of irregularities that affected the municipality’s clean performance in audit outcomes.

The probe was the second after another one was undertaken by council in 2023.

“The investigations were related to the verification of employees and contractors, ghost workers, questionable overtimes and sick leave, among many other things,” Polokwane municipality mayor John Mpe said in a statement.

He said the investigation revealed that the Polokwane municipality had paid more than R128 million to municipal employees on questionable overtime over a period of 14 months.

Mpe added that more than 300 employees were also found to have worked more than 60 hours of overtime, while many other corruption related issues were still being investigated.

“We have already opened criminal cases against those implicated and we are further instituting disciplinary processes against those still in the employ of the municipality.

“We will be working closely with the law enforcement agencies and other relevant authorities to recover municipal losses.

“We are also implementing measures to prevent similar occurrences in the future,” he said.

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