The mayor’s car saga shifted to a higher gear.
Earlier this week the Democratic Alliance laid corruption charges against the Municipal Manager Mr Theo van Vuuren, accusing him of apparently manipulating the vote numbers of capital budget allocations in order to mislead council and make it difficult for anyone to trace where the money for the mayor’s R1.5-million car was actually coming from.
“We have requested the Hawks to undertake a forensic investigation into the municipality’s finances because it would seem that Van Vuuren continues to practice creative accounting despite numerous findings by the Auditor General against him in this regard,” said Cllr Naritha Naidu, Democratic Alliance Caucus Leader in the local council as she together with Ms Jane Sithole MPL, DA Emalahleni Political Head made their way into Witbank police station on Monday, October 3.
Cllr Naritha Naidu, Democratic Alliance Caucus Leader in the local council and Ms Jane Sithole MPL, DA Emalahleni Political Head made their way into Witbank police station on Monday, October 3 to lay charges of corruption against Municipal Manager, Mr Theo van Vuuren.
The DA is suspecting Van Vuuren to be attempting to roll-over unspent conditional grants from three years ago in order to harvest funds for a new R1.5 million vehicle for Executive Mayor, Cllr Lindiwe Ntshalintshali.
On Thursday, September 1 a request was tabled to replace the official car the mayor is using, a Lexus that is nearing 150 000km. According to the mayoral handbook from South African Local Government Association (SALGA) should the vehicle reach the said kilometres it may be replaced and transferred to the municipal car pool.
When the handbrake was pulled up and questions asked about this decision, Van Vuuren said it was not uncommon that funding for specific items must be found in-between budget cycles.
He said the municipality identified savings from votes and projects.
The vote numbers as they appeared on the capital budget items during previous council meetings does not match vote numbers from which savings is derived to fund the Executive Mayor, Cllr Lindiwe Ntshalintshali’s new vehicle.
The vote numbers from which savings is derived to fund the Executive Mayor, Cllr Lindiwe Ntshalintshali’s new vehicle.
“The administration identified savings on projects on the rollover budget from the previous years. In all cases these rollover projects have either been replaced and or have already been implemented. Therefore the savings on these projects will be written off. No funding was diverted from service delivery projects for this purpose,” Van Vuuren said.
He listed the projects where money was saved. Money was left in the coffers from a town planning establishment R61 028, spatial planning R317 245, Empumelelweni Phase 3 R222 994, land purchase R230 555, upgrading and refurbish Rietspruit wastewater treatment plant R114 039, light duty vehicles R66 555, replace steel pipes Kamgewane R192 761, the upgrading and refurbishment of the dam pump station R67 551, construction of return ponds Emalahleni water R30 000, ride on scrubble R230 000 and the establishments of service centres R40 000.
But the here comes the catch. The vote numbers allocated to these projects does not correspond with the same projects noted on the capital budget proposals that were brought to council on items during previous council sittings, there also did not appear to be a clear audit trail to justify these changes.
“We saw red flags when there was not annexure attached to the request to approve the replacement for the official vehicle for the mayor. That means there was no evidence to confirm that the projects were finished, that money was saved on the projects and if the total amounts correspond,” Naidu said.
WITBANK NEWS took a look at the capital budgets that were tabled in December 2014 and January and June 2015. Indeed the vote numbers did not correspond with the projects.
Van Vuuren was furious when he heard that another criminal charge was laid against him and explained that the total budget is made up of different votes for different items.
“Capital items will per directorate and department be in different votes. No votes will change and can be cancelled if no longer used. Through a system of budgeting, budget adjustments and also virement, money are allocated to votes or moved between votes,” he said.
“The DA asked for charges to be laid based on the mayoral car budgeting process and in the press they stated its new corruption charges. The section in the act however speaks to the accounting officer responsibility to make reasonable steps to prevent fraud and financial abuse. It’s not clear to the municipal legal team and the chief financial officer (CFO) what the specific problem is as all processes have been followed correctly and we are not aware of any issues.”
“The DA as members of council should have raised their concern so that the CFO could have addressed it. Actually this is the prescribed procedure the municipality has always been and will be under my leadership, willing to correct mistakes if pointed out. We are more than willing to cooperate with any councillors and the SAPS to resolve this matter if it has substance,” Van Vuuren switched the allegation’s ignition off.
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