Endumeni Council to write off ‘millions’
Municipal Manager Sithembiso Ntombela reminded Councilors that even if the money was written off as recommended it does not mean that the process will just end. “A full investigation will continue and if necessary charges can be laid and followed upon. It does not necessarily mean the end of the matter.”
The Council is to write off around R70-million of ‘irregular, wasteful and unauthorized expenditure’ racked up in the previous financial year.
At a special Council meeting last week, the Municipal Public Accounts Committee (MPAC) chairman, Naresh Gopie, said an investigation by council’s internal audit committee revealed that around R60-million was due to interest accrued from the Endumeni Municipality’s multi-million rand debt (said to be over R160-million with Eskom) and debt impairment related to unpaid service charges by resident and debt ‘unlikely to be paid.’
The other around R10-million relates to trackers placed on municipal vehicles with outstanding contracts dating back over 10 years, SARS penalties, engineering services, fuel bills, the appointment of legal services and presiding officers (all done ‘in an emergency’), VIP protection services, sick leave and accommodation.
Cllrs Sadeck, Shelembe and Kheswa questioned the recommendation to write off the amounts and were adamant those responsible for the expenditure should be held accountable and if possible get them to pay back the money.
Cllr Gopie said the issue was the services had all been provided and the Council could be liable for legal action if the payments had not been paid. “In the case of the sick leave and accommodation expenditure both those people involved have passed on.
He recommended that the management strengthen internal controls to prevent similar wasteful, irregular and unauthorised expenditure and that proper contract systems be developed to prevent what happened with the tracker installations that continued year after year after vehicles were sold or written off.
“Council should look at improving the credit control policy to improve revenue collection and cash flow.” Cllr Pakati commented that following the write offs all measures possible must be done to ensure there is no repeat of such wasteful expenditure.
Cllr Abdool was also concerned that the municipal assets register would also provide the Council with a poor audit report unless steps were taken.
The fuel bill deemed to have been unauthorised, wasteful and/or irregular totalled around R134 000. On two occasions fill ups were done twice on the same day at the same local garage (on February 13 totalling around R40 000 from a Dundee filling station and on January 31 totalling around R70 000 from a Glencoe filling station).
This was done without the correct procedures being followed.
Cllr Shelembe blamed Mayor Ndlovu on racking up the fuel bills ‘due to his nighttime activities’. “How do we know he is filling up for his friends? This should be stopped.”
Taking exception to the suggestions, Mayor Ndlovu said he was ‘not only the Mayor on weekdays from 8am to 4pm Mondays to Fridays but for 24 hours’.
Cllr Gopie said the recommendation was to allocate fuel cards to authorised officials in conjunction with the fleet management and in emergencies put agreements in place with local service stations which would prevent such occurrences that led to irregular expenditure.
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