To the Ratepayers’ of Ndlambe Municipality, we believe that this is one of the most important matters which we monitor and need to ensure accountability…how is our money being spent…?
We ask that Ratepayers read through the draft budget as well as the questions we have posed (compiled by Mr Dawie van Wyk, the Chairman of the Ndlambe Ratepayers Forum or NRF):
Firstly we would like to draw your attention to the Auditors Report for 2021/2022:
OUR QUESTIONS/COMMENTS BASED ON THE AUDITOR GENERAL’S REPORT:
- AG Report:
- Material water losses R 14.1 million due to leaks, burst pipes, reservoir overflows, metering inefficiencies, meter faults and unauthorised unmetered consumption.
- Material electricity losses R 5.1 million due to medium and low voltage losses in switch gear, overhead lines, underground cables and transformers, meter reading and electricity tampering.
- Impairments of R 48.9 million relating to receivables from non-exchange and R 118 million relating to receivables from exchange transactions from irrecoverable debtors.
- Item 30 the 2020-21 annual report was not made public after being tabled in Council as required by section 127(5)(a)(i) of the MFMA.
- Item 31 the local community was not invited to submit representation in connection with the 202-21 annual report as required by section 127(5) (a) (ii) of the MFMA.
- Item 32 the Council failed to adopt an oversight containing Council’s comments on the 2020-21 annual report as required by section 129(1) of the MFA
- Item 33 & 12 No reasonable steps were taken to prevent the irregular Expenditure of R 79.0 millionthat was incurred in the current year due to supply chain management and policy deviations. Furthermore R 410.3 million of current and prior year amounts were written off.
- Item 34 & 11 No reasonable steps were not taken to prevent the balance of unauthorised expenditureof R 112.4 million from overspending of cash and non-cash items in various departments. In the current year and the previous year balances of R 71.0 million and R 237.00 was written off.
- Item 35 A person in the service of the Municipality failed to disclose interest in contracts awarded in contravention of SCM regulation 46(2)(e) of the code of conduct for Councillors issued in terms of the Municipal Systems Act.
- Item 36 A person in the service of the Municipality whose close family members had private interest in contracts awarded by the Municipality failed to disclose such interest in contravention of the SCM regulation 46(2)(e) of the code of conduct for Councillors issued in terms of the Municipal Systems Act.
- Item 37 Bonuses were paid to the municipal manager and senior managers before the annual report for the applicable performance year was tabled and adopted by council as required by the performance regulations for municipal managers and managers accountable to the municipal manager.
- Item 44 Leadership did not adequately discharge its oversight responsibilities with regards to the implementation of monitoring internal control which resulted in inaccurate and incomplete financial information and non-compliance with laws and regulations.
- Item 45 The regular process of collecting and reporting credible information was not always implemented most notably relating to the collation, collection and verification, storage and reporting of information to support the actual performances as reported in the annual performance report.
THE DRAFT BUDGET:
See a copy of the Draft Budget for the upcoming year for Ndlambe Municipality by clicking here: Draft Budget
Mr Dawie van Wyk has compiled a list of the areas of concern as follows:
We have accordingly asked the Director of Finance, Mr Klaas of Ndlambe LM, for a meeting to discuss the budget and raise our concerns – we await confirmation of a date and time. We will keep our Ratepayers updated on progress.
