Political parties react to AG report, seeking answers

The Tshwane speaker officially handed over a list of questions on Tuesday demanding answers from the Auditor General (AG) regarding its recent damning report on financial irregularities in the metro.

The questions were from various political parties in Tshwane.

These parties included the FF+ caucus Awie Erasmus, ANC caucus councillor Frans Boshiel, the RCI caucus and ward councillor Lex Middelberg.

The questions focused on matters such as whether the AG has escalated the CFO and city manager’s lack of cooperation with them to the finance MMC or the mayor.

Some of the questions included:

– Who were the individuals who signed off the financial statements in submitting it to the AG?

– Were the financial statements submitted to the city’s audit performance committee before the submission to the AG?

– Were the previous financial statements (2019-2020) a proper and accurate representation?

– Is there cause for considering criminal charges against certain individuals and service providers over and above the disciplinary action that was suggested?

– Is there cause for considering criminal charges against people who are no longer employed by the city and are there sufficient grounds to consider financial liability and recovery?

– Did the CFO through lies, misleading statements or fraud in any way sway the opinion of the executive and accounting officer that the audit financial statements were of suitable quality to be submitted for the AG?

– The actual wages and salaries of the municipality exceed R12-billion, how is it possible for R 4.6-billion of payment to vanish that the AG cannot track down?

Speaker of council Dr Murunwa Makwarela said the questions would promote transparency and accountability.

They would also ensure that executives were held to account.

“The needs of our people come first and not party politics,” he said.

“Consequence management is a priority in addressing the faults highlighted by the AG.”

Tshwane audit and performance committee chairperson Robert Cameron-Ellis received the questions to be submitted to the AG.

Previously, Cameron-Ellis admitted that controls in the metro were weak.

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Aspects flagged by the AG report included irregular expenditure (of R10-billion); unauthorised expenditure (of over R600-million); fruitless and wasteful expenditure understated (by over R1-billion); and unjustified supply chain management deviations (of over R480-million).

Other issues included the misstatement of assets under construction and disclosed as completed, which means they were overstated by R2-billion.

Leave pay of over R800-million was not properly accounted for while loans and bonds amounting to over R800-million were also not correctly accounted for.

The report claimed that the metro misrepresented its financial statements and they, therefore, did not accurately reflect its financial performance and health.

Furthermore, it said the metro awarded contracts to service providers that were staff and family members.

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