Polokwane muni: Unauthorised spending tallies R1.6b
The committee reports an increase of 10% in electricity losses and expressed concern at “high water losses of 32%".
POLOKWANE – A recent internal performance audit report of the Polokwane Municipality for the period January to December 2023 points to a staggering total of R1,6b in unauthorised expenditure; R480m in irregular expenditure; and fruitless and wasteful expenditure of over R17m.
The audit report was compiled by an independent body in terms of the Municipal Finance Management Act. Following deliberations on these expenditures and other administrative audit findings last Wednesday by the Audit and Performance Audit Committee (APAC), the committee presented a report to council during its first sitting of 2024 on Tuesday.
In a section of the 172-page report, committee chairperson Stanley Ngobeni advised that council refers to the Municipal Public Accounts Committee (MPAC) the unauthorised and irregular expenditures for a lengthier investigation. The balances of irregular expenditure are being discussed, the report reads, and feedback should be available by the next council meeting. The municipality, according the findings, has a number of ghost employees. The investigation found that eight points duty officers and five permanently employed employees could not be physically verified. Their salaries were stopped and classified as irregular expenditure, as it was determined that there were no valid employment contracts.
The issue of ghost employees due to a lack of proper record-keeping at the municipality, was cited in a forensic investigation report by Bowman Gilfillan last year. Municipal Manager Thuso Nemugumoni and two other offices are expected to conduct employee file verification for all employees by March 31, the report mandated.
Strategic Business Units (SBUs) performances are below 70% for all municipal departments, except for strategic planning, monitoring and evaluation (80%). The worst-performing units in this section are Roads and Transport (33%), Corporate Support and Shared Services (30%), Community Services (20%) and Water and Sanitation (38%).
The committee reports an increase of 10% in electricity losses and expressed concern at “high water losses of 32%”, mentioning specifically that the impact of management actions was minimal. The report also mentioned an additional R153m that was spent on overtime compensation for the financial year that ended on December 31, 2023. It concluded that “a lack of adequate and appropriate controls” were the underlying cause that resulted in the abuse of the overtime system at the municipality with the Chief Operations Office recording the highest overtime expenditure. More than R21m was budgeted for Water and Sanitation overtime compensation, with more than R2m having been claimed in December alone.
Energy services claimed year-to-date overtime compensation of over R12m, with almost R2m paid to employees in December only.
The committee advised as a contingency plan that the municipality appoints medium or long term contracts to avoid deviations. Representatives of the municipality could not be reached at the time of going to print.
