By Luvuyo Mjekula
Makana Municipality mayor Yandiswa Vara yesterday dismissed “incorrect” public statements about R60.7m in unspent conditional grant funds the National Treasury indicated it would take back from the troubled institution.
“[The issue of the R60m] is being interpreted incorrectly,” Vara told the audience at a mayoral imbizo on the 2024-2025 Integrated Development Plan Review at the City Hall on Thursday evening.
It had been widely reported recently that the National Treasury had instructed the municipality to return the “unspent” money.
In a statement, the Rhodes University-based Public Service Accountability Monitor (PSAM) and the Action for Accountability (A4A) project stated that, in a letter dated 8 November 2023, the Deputy Director General of Intergovernmental Relations at the National Treasury issued instructions for Makana Municipality to return a total of R60.7 million in unspent conditional grant funds for the 2021/22 and 2022/23 financial years.
The statement went on to say that, of the total amount of R60.7m, the municipality failed to spend R21.7 million of its Municipal Infrastructure Grant (MIG) in 2021/22 and a similar amount – R22.7 million of the MIG in 2022/23.
“For 2022/23, this equates to an astonishing 83% of the total grant allocation of R 27.4 million. There is, therefore, no question that this underspending has had major and adverse impacts on progress towards addressing Makana’s rapidly deteriorating infrastructure.”
At the imbizo, Vara, municipal manager Phumelele Kate, council Speaker Mabhuti Matyumza and six ward councillors came under fire for failing to put in place proper financial accounting measures to ensure funds meant for service delivery are spent.
One resident said it was not in dispute but a fact that the money must be returned to Treasury. “The requirement was for accounting to be done, but it was not done,” he lamented.
Another fed-up resident asked: “How can you not know where R60m went?” He lambasted the municipality for poor financial performance. “You have had no qualified audit for the past four years. What will happen to the financial crisis?”
However, Vara vehemently denied that the money was not spent.
“As the municipality, we say the money was spent, and we know exactly what it was spent on. We have submitted proof to Treasury that we spent the money.
“Records are there to show that we spent the money accordingly,” she said, adding that their only failure was to hand over documentary evidence to the Treasury.
“Currently, there is no money that has been taken [back from the municipality],” Vara said.
She, however, confirmed the municipality did receive communication from the Treasury in which an intention to withdraw the funds was made. But she was adamant the municipality had applied for a rollover for the money to be utilised the following financial year. They are currently in talks with Treasury to resolve the matter, the mayor assured the residents.
Municipal manager Phumelele Kate also sought to play down the controversy. He said: “We are not talking about taxpayers’ money that was squandered.”
The audience called for consequences for those who failed to account to Treasury regarding the grants.
Other burning issues raised at the imbizo ranged from water and sanitation problems to bad roads and a high crime rate.
At one point, the mayor conceded there were serious service delivery calamities. “It is no secret that the state of our roads is very bad.” She assured the community they were working to fix the problems.
Read next week’s Grocott’s Mail for more on the imbizo.
