Adjustment budget pushed through

A majority vote from the ANC, backed by the EFF, pushed through the J.B. Marks adjustment budget during yesterday’s council meeting. This, despite the Democratic Alliance’s (DA’s) requests that management should be open and forthcoming with financial statements and the lack of service delivery. The Freedom Front Plus (FF+) also followed the DA by rejecting the adjustment budget.

The DA went as far as calling for a division of the house during the council meeting. This is the strongest form of rejection against a council decision. With this division, the DA expressed its serious concern about adopting the amended adjustment budget. This move follows a series of issues and questions the DA raised with the speaker’s office regarding the city’s budget and state of service delivery. They were either ignored or answered vaguely and inadequately.

“It is an absolute prerequisite that councillors’ questions are responded to and reports that are brought to the council are detailed. This enables councillors to perform their oversight obligations, something the management and leadership apparently fears,” says Jeanne Adriaanse, a DA councillor in the J.B. Marks municipality.

According to Adriaanse, the adjustment budget brought before the council failed to meet even the basic requirements. “The management doesn’t find it necessary to provide the bank statements upon which the adjustment budget is based. They also don’t provide proof of proposed increased expenditure – a prerequisite when an adjustment budget is tabled. The lack of service delivery and consequence management due to financial maladministration can no longer be tolerated. The adjustment budget tabled before the council failed to meet these requirements,” says Adriaanse.

According to her, the DA will continue to oppose the inadequate budget, which does not prioritise service delivery, lacks accountability and continues the well-established financial quagmire that has become the trademark of the ANC-led J.B. Marks municipality.

In a statement, the FF+ said it was unacceptable that officials and politicians involved in criminal cases of mismanagement and corruption related to their office are allowed to continue their work and manage the municipalities where they are employed. “The mayor of the J.B. Marks municipality, Mr Kgotso Khumalo, is currently facing charges of financial mismanagement and fraud relating to the allocation of contracts stemming from his work as the mayor. And, yet, he is still serving as the mayor and is actively participating in the current adjustment budget process, during which adjustments to contracts are being made,” read the statement.

The DA will report these transgressions to the provincial and parliamentary portfolio committees and National Treasury to ensure the return accountability and transparency. “This is the only way to ensure sustainable service delivery for the people of J.B. Marks local municipality,” Adriaanse said.