Fraudsters cost municipality millions

According to the list, as presented by Mr Masange, one employee allegedly claimed to have worked 18 hours daily.

July 3, 2014

Talha Randeree 1 minute read

Strategic Executive Director of Community Services, Mandla Sithole, has been tasked to launch investigations into alleged fraudulent claims by employees in his department.

“Waste management is wasting millions!”

These were the words of Newcastle Mayor, Afzul Rehman after the Municipal Manager, Kebone Masange, presented a top 10 list to EXCO, implicating municipal employees from the Department of Community Services, in alleged fraudulent dealings.

Allegedly, one employee claimed nearly R38 000 in overtime fees from the finance department.

“We were lucky to pick this up. I was checking through the finances of different departments with municipal auditors when we came across these fraudulent claims,” said Mr Masange.

Overtime was not the only benefit abused by employees. Mr Masange singled out one person who allegedly claimed 40 kilometres of petrol allowance daily for travelling from Arbor Park to the municipal buildings.

“These guys think we are playing games here; we will be fining them and ensure all their fraudulent deals are dealt with,” promised Mr Masange. Cllr Rehman firmly supported this decision by the municipal manager.

“Heads will roll,” he warned. Allegedly, the employees committing fraudulent deals were the same ones who helped incite recent protests.

The department was granted a budget of R17.5-million last year, but had to apply for another R4-million to cover excess expenditure caused by these fraudulent claims.Cllr Rehman proposed to EXCO to have all overtime pay in the municipality stopped.“No employee of the municipality should be claiming overtime, unless authorised by their manager and the EXCO committee.”This proposition is under deliberation by EXCO.

At Caxton, every story is written by humans. We use AI only to perform quality checks - never to generate the news. Happy reading!

July 3, 2014

Talha Randeree 1 minute read