Repeated use of poor-performing contractors has raised red flags about municipal oversight and accountability, says KwaDukuza’s finance watchdog chairperson Thulile Mkhize.

Mkhize, the municipal public accounts committee (MPAC) chairperson, criticised supply chain management (SCM) procedures in a presentation to council last week. She said the SCM unit repeatedly used unreliable contractors and called for stronger consequence management going forward.

MPAC is a municipal committee that is mandated to provide financial oversight on behalf of council.

“How come [SCM officials] cannot identify contractors that can produce work of good quality? Where is the consequence management for this?” said Mkhize.

“Did the municipality withhold performance bonuses for this poor performance, or did it credit staff with bonuses despite the shoddy work? These are the questions we need to ask ourselves. Poor recruitment will always lead to poor performance.”

She also raised concerns over unfinished housing projects and the ongoing electricity crisis, urging decisive intervention.

“The electricity challenge requires multipronged strategies, as per our lekgotla resolutions,” she said.

“Some municipalities have at least started with solar geysers. Can KwaDukuza not implement this for new RDP houses and extend it to existing ones?”

Mkhize’s report also touched on recurring financial issues flagged by the Auditor-General, including irregular expenditure and regulatory non-compliance.

She stressed the need to fill vacant IT department posts to strengthen financial security and questioned why some disaster relief funds from the 2022 floods remained unspent three years on.

However, she praised the reduction of unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure to below R4-million, as well as another unqualified audit.

“This is good progress and should be celebrated.”

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