Local politicians have mixed reactions about the adverse opinion expressed by the Auditor General (AG) on the performance of Makana Municipality during the 2008/2009 financial year.
Local politicians have mixed reactions about the adverse opinion expressed by the Auditor General (AG) on the performance of Makana Municipality during the 2008/2009 financial year.
The AG’s report which was tabled at a special council meeting last month revealed that the municipality did not account for at least R26-million and that it did not claim for VAT input on the expenditure incurred during that financial year.
Stwiga Njibana, regional secretary of Congress of the People (Cope), describes the report as a worst case scenario.
Njibana said Cope has not yet held a formal meeting to discuss the report but that they are aware that there is a big problem in all municipalities, especially in the Cacadu district.
Njibana said the main problem in local government is cadre deployment" and he says Cope’s strategy is to do away with this practice to make sure departments employ people according to their skills.
He added that the adverse audit report is a result of the municipality having no effective systems in place. He says this is exacerbated by people who are not suitable for their jobs are being employed.
“They don’t know what they’re doing”, he says. Michael Whisson, the Democratic Alliance chief whip on the Makana Council, said the report is unfortunate because some of its paragraphs give an impression that a large amount of money was missing but that this was not the case.
“The problem is if the AG’s officials didn’t get the information they required in heir format of choice, the AG says you didn’t account for that information,” he said.
Whisson said he is confident thatChief Financial Officer, Jackson Ngcelwane has not been running a dishonest body but that Ngcelwane’s directorateis “seriously understaffed and needs to be staffed with people who are highly trained.
There’s a lack of highly motivated and trained staff in finance and engineering,” he added. ANC regional secretary Nosisa Siwendu said last week that the ANC have not yet met to discuss the report and that a meeting was to be held on Sunday for this purpose.
She said she could only speak from a collective decision and not express a personal opinion. Since then, however, Siwendu has not been available for comment.
