This according to the Auditor General (AG)’s report presented at the recent Municipal Public Account Committee (MPAC) public hearing held at Mokwakwaila Community.

The audit report also revealed that the municipality also incurred fruitless and wasteful expenditure amounting to R147 655 as a result of inventory losses and interest on late payment.

The report further uncovered that the municipality deviated from tender processes by procuring goods and services with a transaction value of below R200 000 without obtaining the required three price quotations, in contravention of supply chain management regulation.

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The following deviations were also exposed:

*Services with a transaction value above R200 000 were procured without inviting competitive bids as required by supply chain management regulation.

*The preference point system was not applied in some procurement of goods, as required by section of the preferential procurement policy framework act.

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*Tenders were awarded to bidders who did not submit a declaration on whether they are employed by the state or connected to any person employed by the state, as required by SCM regulation.

*Construction tenders were awarded to service providers with lower Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) grading than the required ones, while some were awarded to bidders with expired CIDB grading.

*The performance of contractors and other service providers was not monitored on a monthly basis.

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*Credit control and debt collection policy was not implemented, as well as the basic accounting principles of daily and monthly accounting and reconciling.

*The municipality claim to have supported 216 small medium and micro enterprises but there is no portfolio of evidence provided.

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Replying to questions by members of MPAC, acting Municipal Manager, Donald Mangwana said effective steps will be taken to prevent irregular expenditure as well as fruitless and wasteful expenditure.

He said stringent control measures will be implemented as a matter of urgency to prevent the problems from recurring and that they are in the process of introducing an auto-pay system to address late payment of debts which results in interests charged.

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He added that the municipality will apply consequence management and that training will be arranged with the provincial treasury to train all bid committee members as well as Supply Chain Management officials.