"The chickens are coming home to roost," said Councillor Les Reynolds, adding that this is what happens when the finance department is not being run by a qualified chief financial officer.
"The chickens are coming home to roost," said Councillor Les Reynolds, adding that this is what happens when the finance department is not being run by a qualified chief financial officer.
"We need to do something tomorrow, and we need to find a professional." The incident to which he was referring at the Makana Council meeting on Wednesday was the gross underpayment and overpayment of officials, including the mayor when they received their salaries for the last month.
Finance portfolio chairperson, Pierre Ranchhod revealed in a report that:
* Councillors were paid on Wednesday and to his dismay R10 579 was deducted from Mayor Peter's account with no authorisation. "There was no paper trail to this effect, merely a [verbal]instruction by the former acting chief financial officer, Namhla Dlulane, to the pay master." Dlulane had been deployed by the Department of Local Government a couple of months after CFO Jackson Ngcelwane was suspended last year. A majority of councillors opted not to extend her contract and resolved that the deputy to the CFO, Marius Crous must become the acting CFO until the MEC for Local Government and Traditional Affairs, Mlibo Qoboshiyane sends another acting CFO.
* Chief whip, Councillor Vuyani Kolisi's salary was increased by R430 000 for an assumed underpayment of salary.
* Only the mayor's salary was increased by 5% last month, an increment that was only supposed to be effective to all councillors after the council and the MEC of Local Government had approved, as gazetted.
* Councillor Nombulelo Masoma was said to be overpaid, but he said he couldn't find any documentation to this effect. Ranchhod asked the municipal manager, Ntombi Baart, who is also the accounting officer, to explain who authorised these payments.
She said that the acting chief financial officer, who is currently on leave, is the person who has to answer these questions. "In terms of the procedure, payroll has to be reviewed and authorised," Baart said, but she didn't feel comfortable signing off the payroll because she could see it contained a number of discrepancies.
She then revealed that the HR manager took it upon herself to be responsible for paying the salaries because she was concerned that the staff members would not be paid. In response to this Ranchhod asked: "How can a junior official – an HR Manager – sign off a document that the MM, who is the accounting officer, refused to sign?"
The mayor then brought up R59 028 that the auditor general (AG) labelled as the overpayment of two councillors in the report – one being the mayor and the other being Masoma.
Mayor Peter didn't know how the AG had come to that figure, and appealed to the municipal manager to compile an in-depth report to help the council make the right decision when dealing with the issue.
Since stepping into his office, it has also been discovered that the mayor was overpaid in the line of more than R11 000 in cellphone allowance.
Corporate Services Director, Thabiso Klaas said that a ruling on the item cannot be made until the Auditor General's report is available, so that councillors can make an informed decision. The council report recommended that Kolisi must be re-reimbursed for underpayments on his council allowance and that an investigation must be undertaken to find the person responsible for the overpayment and underpayment of last month's salaries.
"I was very angry this morning… whatever is behind it is going to be revealed," Mayor Peter assured the council, and said to whoever is responsible: "it's very frustrating. I hope you will grow and be above your pettiness. This is very dirty."
