Mr Fix-It explains where funds for mayor’s new wheels come from

Following the criminal charges against the municipal manager, the man holding the municipality’s reins said the public has been misinformed and negative perceptions were created.

Mr Theo van Vuuren lashed out at the Democratic Alliance (DA) earlier this week and said,

“I was personally disappointed that the DA followed this route on an issue which could easily have been clarified. As a result further negative allegations have been made based on incorrect assumptions and interpretation of information. The council’s legal advisors are busy with preparing counter reactions”.

The DA laid corruption charges against Van Vuuren on October 3 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.

The Chief Financial Officer, Ms J Hlatshwayo custodian of the budget and also the official who prepared the report to council, assisted by the Acting Chief Audit Executive Mr R Mahlangu, prepared the following to remove any misunderstandings.

“The accusation that the municipality has not followed the correct process to apply for a roll-over capital budget is misplaced. The municipality in terms of the act must apply for a roll-over in respect of conditional grants,” they said.

According to them none of the projects reflected in the report to council on September 1 have been funded from conditional grants.

Hlatshwayo and Mahlangu reported that savings used to fund the budget of the executive mayor’s car were not from the unspent conditional grants. These were savings identified from completed projects and projects that had no commitment sourced from the municipal own income and loans.

“Therefore the allegation is unfounded. For other projects which do include conditional grants, the municipality has applied for roll-over on unspent grant as per the National Treasury circular and documentation to proof this is available.”

Van Vuuren reacted to the changing of vote numbers allegation and explained how the vote numbers work.
He said the vote numbers are determined in an automated way. When the municipality approves capital projects a unique number (called vote number) is allocated for identification purpose. The vote number has 13 characters, for example 1045/25/6/03/0313.

1045/45 is for departmental description, the number six describes whether the project is roll-over, new or replace. The numbers 03 describes the funding of the project. Whether is funded from loans, own revenue or grants. The last digits, 0313, describes the financial year in which the project is approved for example 0200 stands for financial year 2014/2015, 0300 for financial year 2015/2016 and 0400 for financial year 2016/2017. If a project is being roll-over to the following financial year, then the last four digits will be changed to correspond to the coding of that particular year in a numerical order.

“Mr Van Vuuren has no role to play in the allocation of vote numbers and the statement that he manipulated or tempered with these numbers is far from any truth. The budget manager who oversees all budget items can only change a number through a formal process and no instructions were given in this respect. The process is open for inspection,” Hlatshwayo and Mahlangu said.

According to a statement from council each of the projects has been checked whether they are completed, cancelled or replaced.

The council took one step extra and said they verified with each directorate and through the Project Management Unit.

“As the total amount from these projects is higher than needed not all the funds were transferred to the new vote for the municipal mayoral vehicle,” they concluded.

All the wheel nuts came off as residents were furious about the intention to buy Cllr Lindiwe Ntshalintshali a new set of wheels. On the background of poor service delivery, constant dry taps and electricity interruptions the council has money left in the coffers from a town planning establishment, spatial planning, the Empumelelweni Phase 3, land purchase, upgrading and refurbish Rietspruit wastewater treatment plant, light duty vehicles, replacing of steel pipes Kamgewane, the upgrading and refurbishment of the dam pump station, construction of return ponds eMalahleni water, ride on scrabble and the establishments of service centres.

The general feeling amongst residents is that the money should be spent on more important projects like service delivery.

The DA’s Caucus Leader, Cllr Naritha Naidu said they are standing steadfast and will continue to provide residents an oversight of how their tax money is being spent.

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