Standerton’s heritage seems to be the forensic investigation by Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA).
Mr Rosier de Ville, caucus leader of the DA, said on Friday, 25 September that the item was on the agenda of the special virtual council meeting of Monday, 21 September.
According to Mr De Ville, the precautionary suspension of the municipal manager, Ms Gugulethu Mhlongo-Ntshangase, will be investigated by a committee.
The DA requested the Section 106-investigative report in council in 2018 to investigate allegations of maladministration and corruption.
Section 106 of the Municipal Systems Act states that if an MEC has reason to believe that a municipality in the province cannot or does not fulfil a statutory obligation binding on that municipality, or that maladministration, fraud, corruption or any other serious malpractice has occurred, or is occurring in a municipality in a province, steps are to be taken.
The FF Plus recently said the provincial government should have acted and already taken drastic steps in 2018. This would have put an end to the financial mismanagement.
Ms Sithi Silosini, PR-counsellor of the DA, also argued strongly for the report’s release.
Allegations relating to financial discipline, citing the deficit, over-indebtedness and the Sars- and Eskom account were points raised.
It was recommended that an arrangement be made with Eskom and consideration be given to appointing a consultant to perform a VAT-review. With allegations relating to unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure, a recommendation was made that council take steps to recover and or condone such expenditure.
Council had however, already certified it as irrecoverable and to be written off.
Non-compliance of the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA) as regards the role of the accounting officer, as well as not taking reasonable steps to prevent such expenditure, were cited.
The appointment of an external service provider to help with implementing control was recommended and the MFMA was again not complied to with regard to funding of the budget.
An external service provider to implement national treasury’s recommendations was the recommendation.
Supply chain management was another thorny issue and mention was made of Tlou Consulting (Pty) Ltd, R & D Mrazane Trading, Nako Iliso Consulting Engineers, Tarcron (Pty) Ltd, Thaphiwe Logistics and Calandra Trading 621 (Pty).
Appointment of external service providers was once again recommended. An allegation that service providers are paid before the actual work is done, breaching the Municipal Finance Management Act, is also in the report.
The recommendation was that council take appropriate action. Appropriate action should also be taken against staff members, who either approved payments without required, valid, supportive documents, or submitting incomplete supportive documents to the creditors clerk, or loading of documents.
The recommendation was that an external service provider be appointed. With regard to service delivery such as sewage spillages, unreliable supply of electricity and water shortages, it was noted that Lekwa is incapable of delivering basic services in a sustainable manner.
The recommendations for procurement plans and competitive bidding were respectively for a plan to be created and that bidding should be in line with Supply Chain Management Policy.
The newspaper sent a WhatsApp-message to the communications manager of the municipality, Ms Thobeka Mtshiselwa, on Friday, 25 September, requesting official comment on the investigative report.
No feedback was received at the time of going to press.
Also read:
https://www.citizen.co.za/ridge-times/241423/the-case-between-lekwa-ratepayers-association-and-eskom-to-be-heard-in-supreme-court-of-appeal-bloemfontein/
