Also read: Dawid Kruiper must prevent further Orange River contamination
That Sol Plaatje municipality has come out as the top contributor of unauthorised, fruitless, wasteful and irregular expenditure in the Northern Cape in the 2021/2022 municipal audit outcomes, exposes ANC cadre deployment and political interference above the principle of appointing people who are fit for purpose.
According to the Auditor-General’s report, evidence for work done is not always provided by the municipality when the AG requests the information. The flaunting of tender processes is worrisome, as council also receives a lot of requests to approve variations and deviations. This is understandable in emergencies, but it happens regularly with routine work and capital projects, such as Lerato Park electrification, Craven Street trading area and Carters Glen sewage line. The DA has previously questioned this in committee meetings, also requesting evidence of work done, but the matter is always deferred to another meeting, and never sees the light of day.
The DA has previously raised our concern at the more than R500 million irregular expenditure that has been incurred over the last five financial years. We already referred the matter to the Municipal Public Accounts Committee (MPAC) but it has not been investigated yet.
With water losses at such high levels, we also question the delay in utilizing the multibillion-rand Water Services Infrastructure Grant (WSIG) to upgrade Sol Plaatje’s water infrastructure. We were told repeatedly that everything was ready to begin, but the work was postponed twice, and now it appears to be postponed indefinitely.
The Democratic Alliance is of the view that the poor audit outcomes and worsening state of financial management within Sol Plaatje is largely attributed to the instability in senior management positions.
While the council approved the recruitment of directors late last year, the process has not even reached the stage of council approving the screening panel for those positions. The speaker further prevented the municipal manager providing an update on the process, after the DA queried the processs.
At best, the municipality and its senior officials are behaving recklessly. At worst, they are deliberately trying to prevent stability and accountability.
The DA has already tabled a motion requesting unauthorised, fruitless, wasteful and irregular expenditure incurred since the 2017/18 financial year to be investigated, in addition to requesting the the Special Investigating Unit to investigate allegations of political interference.
*PRESS RELEASE
Also read: Dawid Kruiper must prevent further Orange River contamination
