Acting Municipal Manager says sorry
Nemugumoni and Venter were in the hot seat as they had to answer several of the council members' questions.
LIMPOPO – The Capricorn District Municipality (CDM) Acting Municipal Manager, Thuso Nemugumoni, and the Chief Finance Officer, Mariëtte Venter, appeared before the Municipal Public Accounts Committee (MPAC) to account on irregular expenditures outlined in the 2015/16 annual draft report during the MPAC public hearing.
The hearing took place at the CDM Council Chamber on Friday.
The draft report indicated CDM incurred unauthorised expenditure amounting to more than R66,3 million which relates to overspending of the municipality infrastructure grant and irregular expenditure due to the payments of the final retention certificate amounting to more than R1,1 million.
When asked why CDM overspent its grant, Venter said infrastructure implemented and acceleration plan and the actual work compared to remaining budget was not properly managed by the user department. She further said this was an attempt to implement the acceleration plan.
Venter said the infrastructure department did nothing wrong in the 2015/16 financial year as the irregular expenditure was reported in the 2010/11 financial year, hence the irregular expenditure was not recent.
CDM also incurred an unauthorised expenditure of over R56,2 million (overspending of infrastructure grant) and fruitless and wasteful expenditure of more than R6 million on SARS penalties and interests. In terms of section 32 (2)(a)(ii) of the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA), the municipality must recover unauthorised, irregular or fruitless and wasteful expenditure from the person liable for the expenditure.
Venter explained the amount of more than R6 million relates to an accumulated balance starting from 2011. “The SARS penalties and interest only amounted to R20 203 for 2015. When the submission of the EMP 501 reconciliation was done by the municipality, SARS did not agree to the municipality’s reconciliation and issued penalties and interest on the submission,” she explained.
When asked why CDM failed to investigate, Venter said four meetings were held by the committee, but they were interrupted by the disbanding of council and expiry of the audit committee term. She said the new committee will finalise the investigations. Venter apologised by saying they will ensure the municipality pay all the invoices on time to avoid penalties and interest.
“Under demographics of CDM in the annual report, there is an area where we are supposed to show all municipalities under CDM. Aganang has been reported as a municipality that is, in terms of the municipal demarcation board, under reconfigurations (de-establishment) and it had to be highlighted as such in 2015/16 to allow readers to understand,” Nemugumoni explained.
One councillor outlined that Aganang was part of CDM to which Nemugumoni apologised for not incorporating the information.
