Half of Maruleng 2020/21 budget flagged as irregular
Half of the Maruleng Local Municipality's (MLM) budget for the 2020/21 financial year has allegedly been flagged as unauthorised, irregular, fruitless, and wasteful expenditure (UIFWE).
On November 3, the DA in Hoedspruit wrote to the AuditorGeneral regarding alleged irregularities in the monitoring and spending of municipal finances in the municipality. “A damning report on UIFWE for the 2020/2021 financial year was tabled by the Municipal Public Accounts Committee (MPAC) chairperson, Bishop Raganya, but the council decided to defer the item to the next council meeting; this despite the report being an item on the agenda for the July council sitting.
The UIFWE incurred for the 2020/2021 financial year of R281 575 750 was presented to council and is half of our municipal budget,” said Clr Portia Moropane, a PR councilor in the MLM. She said that the MPAC chairman further indicated that UIFWE of only R57 481 604.99 will be investigated, which includes the overpayment of a VAT amount of R65 000 of which R45 000 was for the removal of bulbs from streetlights; and R823 220 bad debt written off.
Also read: Maruleng communities at risk as bridge collapses
“The DA has been blocked by the ANC and its allies to have a seat on the MPAC since 2021, contravening the rules of order on portfolio committee allocations for political parties. The MPAC currently has four members, three ANC councilors and one EFF councillor who are inept to effectively monitor the municipal finances,” Moropane said.
“The MPAC’s actions are blindly ratified by the council and have dire consequences for residents, some of whom have not received running water in the last 30 years,” she added. “We will not tolerate the deliberate lack of accountability by the MPAC who are jeopardizing service delivery to a rural municipality through their incompetence,” she added. The Herald reached out to various officials at the municipality for comment. At the time of going to print, no comment was received.
