Polokwane Council to recover R5m from officials over fruitless expenditure
The Polokwane Municipality resolves to recover R5m from officials after years of unchecked wasteful and irregular spending.
POLOKWANE – During the recent meeting of the Polokwane Municipal Council, it was resolved that irregular and unauthorised expenditure amounting to millions be written off, but for a change, the local authority resolved that just under R5m be recovered from officials and persons responsible for fruitless expenditure.
The amounts to be written off included R176 829 870 that was paid to a panel of lawyers without an adequate rotation and allocation policy, R38 262 020 for appointing Absa for fleet and equipment finance without a fair, transparent and cost-effective supply chain management process and R52 271 101 in unspent conditional grants that had to be returned to National Treasury.
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An amount of R417 882 716 in non-cash, unbudgeted expenditure (depreciation) was also written off.
Council also resolved that R925 974 in penalties and interest due to late submission of Workman’s Compensation Fund annual returns, R804 314,40 from a consultant for standing time caused by late submission of drawings and R2 198 470 be recovered from a project manager due to late payment to a client.
ANC chief whip, Adolph Rapetswa, openly suggested a “cost/benefit” analysis before pursuing recovery of funds – a thinly veiled attempt to shield officials from real accountability, according to DA Polokwane finance portfolio spokesperson Jacques Joubert.
“The DA will closely monitor whether decisive action is taken against officials to recover fruitless and wasteful expenditure, as mandated by council resolution of July 29” he assured.
During this meeting, the Municipal Public Accounts Committee (MPAC) tabled a report compelling action against implicated officials, with a progress report to be submitted to council within 90 days.
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“This marks a welcome shift from previous MPAC resolutions, where the DA opposed weak recommendations that failed to hold anyone to account,” Joubert added and said that Polokwane’s ANC-led administration, under Mayor John Mpe, has a dismal track record on consequence management.
“The people of Polokwane deserve a municipality that is well-managed, transparent, and accountable – not one where mismanagement is swept under the rug,” Joubert insisted.
The term ‘fruitless and wasteful expenditure’ refers to expenditure that was made in vain and would have been avoided had reasonable care been exercised, while ‘unauthorised expenditure’ means any expenditure incurred by a municipality and includes overspending of the total amount appropriated in the approved budget or expenditure from a budget item unrelated to the department or functional area covered by the budget.
Some unauthorised expenditure emanates from items such as insufficient budget for non-cash items such as depreciation, impairment loss, provision for bad debts that were written off, inventory issued, interest on landfill site provisions and unapproved conditional grant roll-over spent/not cash-backed, loss on disposal of assets and liabilities.
