KwaDukuza municipality will seek permission to have R103 million irregular expenditure written off by National Treasury for the 2018/19 financial year.
The report tabled at last month’s council meeting, states the irregular expenditure was irrecoverable.
The municipal public accounts committee (MPAC), which compiled the oversight report, details the irregular expenditure incurred.
Irregular expenditure is expenditure that has been incurred in a way that is not compliant with legislation, mainly with the Public Finance Management Act.
In KDM alone, irregular expenditure has been a consistent downfall with the amount increasing in the last few years from R86m in 2014/2015 to R247m in 2016/2017.
Last year the municipality came under the national spotlight for findings released by the Auditor-General (AG) Kimi Makwetu, of non compliance with key legislation, which points directly to processes not being followed in recording payments as well as tender applications.
While KDM committed to addressing shortcomings highlighted in the report and strengthening supply chain processes, it seems not enough is being done.
Community Services business unit notched up R60 million of expenditure in the 2018/19 financial year with the bulk of the items attributed to expired contracts while the Civil Engineering Services and Human Settlements department recorded cumulative irregular expenditure of R40 million.
“The lack of consequences and the non-recovery of money from officials responsible for incurring the irregular expenditure were concerning,” said Makwetu who attributed the irregular expenditure to the blatant disregard of legislation and intentional abuse of systems and processes in the local sphere of government.
