Parliament, Wednesday, 2 September 2020 – The Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs wants a detailed breakdown on the liquidity of Polokwane Municipality for the past three financial years. It also wants a report on consequence management in respect of non-compliance and deviations from policy, and recoveries of municipal monies lost as a result of unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure over the past three financial years: 2016/17, 2017/18 and 2018/19.
Furthermore, the committee wants a detailed report that includes information about the payment of the settlement agreement between the municipality and the previous municipal manager (MM) and managers who reported to the MM. The committee told the Polokwane Local Municipality’s executive mayor, Ms Thembi Nkadimeng, that the information should reach the committee by next Tuesday, 8 September.
The committee will schedule another follow-up meeting with the municipality where the Limpopo Provincial Government’s MEC for Local Government and a representative from the National Treasury must attend and where the required information will be presented and discussed.
The committee had a follow-up meeting with the municipality yesterday during which the municipality was expected to provide satisfactory answers on matters it had previously been unable to answer satisfactorily when appearing before the committee.
The matters include procurement of personal protective equipment, the Municipal Public Accounts Committee’s response on its outstanding oversight report on the municipality and human settlements.
The municipality justified its deviation from supply chain management and procurement policies by saying the municipality is complex. However, the committee told the MM that all municipalities are complex and that this is no grounds for deviations.
The Chairperson of the committee, Ms Faith Muthambi, highlighted, among other things, that the Auditor-General (AG) had noted the frequent use of consultants in Polokwane’s audit outcome. The committee was unable to reconcile the municipality’s use of consultants with the existence of a municipal financial department under the management of a Chief Financial Officer and many senior managers.
Ms Muthambi said it is ironic that the municipality has a qualified audit opinion for the 2018/19 financial year notwithstanding its financial department and the use of consultants, which have cost the municipality R69 million, just for preparation of financial statements. “This is irreconcilable and doesn’t make sense,” said Ms Muthambi.
ISSUED BY THE PARLIAMENTARY COMMUNICATION SERVICES ON BEHALF OF THE CHAIRPERSON OF THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON COOPERATIVE GOVERNANCE AND TRADITIONAL AFFAIRS, MS FAITH MUTHAMBI.
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E-mail: sugovender@parliament.gov.za
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