The Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) invited the executive mayor of JB Marks, Kgotso Khumalo, to account for irregular and wasteful expenditure to the amount R1 billion in the provincial parliament on Tuesday.
However, Khumalo failed to attend and instead sent Kelvin Johnson, the mayoral committee member for finance, to appear on his behalf.
In a scathing remark on the state of the municipality’s finances and Tuesday’s events, the chairperson of Scopa, Mahlakeng Mahlakeng, told the Herald that ‘it seems that the leadership of the municipality is deliberately collapsing the municipality, or there is no leadership at all in that municipality.’
Mahlakeng said the mayor’s failure to show up at this vital meeting shows little respect for parliament. ‘We were very unhappy and disgusted. We are talking about more than a billion rands of irregular and fruitless expenditure,’ he fumed.
‘What worries us is that this used to be the best municipality in the country, at some point they received an award,’ he said.
When asked where the mayor was, Mahlakeng replied that some alleged that he was attending a political meeting somewhere. ‘We did not accept all of that because our view is that parliament should take precedence, particularly when we are talking about public funds of such magnitude.’
He added that despite Scopa’s unhappiness, the JB Marks delegation, which included the acting municipal manager, Cyril Henry, was not ready to present to the committee.
‘Councillor Johnson was not even aware of the issues on the table,’ he said.
Since the mayor failed to appear to account for the R1 billion of wasteful expenditure, the meeting could not continue. Mahlakeng said the only route they can now take is to summon the mayor to the next meeting. ‘The summons might take about two weeks because the speaker of parliament must also be involved,’ he said.
In March, the Herald reported that the auditor-general’s report at a council meeting noted that the municipality’s irregular, unauthorised, fruitless and wasteful expenditure since 2007 amounts to nearly R1 billion, a fact the municipality has not addressed since.
These are malicious and pure lies, says mayoral spokesperson
The mayoral spokesperson, Victor Boqo, dismissed Mahlakeng remarks at Tuesday’s sitting. ‘The comments made by the Scopa chairperson are malicious, pure lies and put the name of the municipality into disrepute,’ said Boqo.
Boqo says the mayor could not attend the meeting because he had other commitments. He said the executive mayor has always honoured Scopa’s invita- tions. The legislature allows for the executive mayor to delegate someone on his behalf and to send a letter of apology in the event he is unable to attend.
‘It is unfounded that the delegation sent to appear before Scopa was unprepared or the acting executive mayor was unaware of the issues on the table. The purpose of the meeting was to account for the 2015/2016 and 2016/2017 financial reports. Normally, documents are sent to Scopa seven days before the sitting,’ he explained.
Some media reports allege that the Scopa committee is of the opinion that the JB Marks municipality is bankrupt. Boqo defended this and said that the municipality is financially stable. ‘We are fourteen days into the new financial year after tabling the budget of R1.6 billion.’
Reacting to the statement on the lack of leadership in the municipality, Boqo said that there is indeed leadership. ‘All the critical senior positions have been advertised.
The appointments will be made soon and approved by the council,’ he concluded.
Boqo explained the irregular expenditure by saying, ‘The irregular expendi-ture disclosed in the 2016/2017 annual financial statements of the then NW405 after the audit of the AG amounted to R696 million, but this does not mean that this money had been misused or stolen. The bulk of the issues that led to the AG’s pronouncement involved largely technical matters of non-compliance to the supply chain regulations, such as the composition of our bid committee.’
‘Due to technicalities related to the composition of the committee, the AG required that we disclose over R31 mil-lion as irregular. However, the projects were completed and services rendered. Currently, all these issues are being addressed and most of them have been resolved. The Municipality is in the process of addressing the irregular expenditures of previous years and is in communication with the AG’s office.’
https://www.citizen.co.za/potchefstroom-herald/48960/r302-million-toilet-jb-marks/
