Outa demands public participation process to be restarted

SECUNDA – The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) has written a letter to Govan Mbeki Municipality (GMM) addressing concerns regarding the lack of community participation in their 2019/20 IDP and Budget Review Process.

The organisation is demanding that GMM review and set aside the council resolution of 29 May which passed the budget.

Outa demands that the public participation process be restarted to ensure proper community participation.

Earlier Outa wrote to the municipal manager, pointing out that the budget was adopted even though the period for public comment was supposed to run for another six days, which means the legally required public participation process was flawed.

Outa also pointed out that financial regulations were flouted in the budget.

Mr Michael Holenstein, manager of Outa’s Local Government Division, said concerns about the budget include the deficit of R475-million, an additional R100-million for salaries, on top of the R275-million for contracted services and the flouting of the Municipal Finance Management Act on budget requirements.

“It is virtually impossible to draw up a budget for 2019/20 based on Govan Mbeki’s financial performance in 2018/19.

“A municipality that does not even have a cashbook, is on a hiding to nothing.

“The municipality received a disclaimer of opinion from the Auditor-General for the 2017/18 financial year, an audit opinion that was even worse than the two previous qualified audit opinions.”

He said Outa has attempted, on numerous occasions, to engage with the Govan Mbeki Municipality executive and political office bearers.

However, their requests fell on deaf ears which indicates the contempt with which community stakeholders are treated.

“This is unacceptable and a clear indication that the municipality is not interested in the public’s input and concerns. This budget was hidden from public view and makes no attempt to acknowledge the law or the municipality’s financial realities.”