The DA in Polokwane welcomes the improved audit finding of “unqualified with findings.”
On 30 January 2023 council adopted the draft annual report for the 2021/2022 financial year, which contained the audit report as presented by the Auditor General.
Despite improvements, the Auditor General highlighted similar challenges as in previous reports including:
- Reasonable steps were not taken to prevent R539 098 503 in the unauthorised expenditure and R89 762 828 in irregular expenditure;
- No steps were taken to prevent the R17 125 046 in fruitless expenditure, most of which was due to a prepayment for busses ordered but not delivered by the manufacturer. This amount was allegedly paid before the buses were manufactured. We will submit comprehensive written questions to the council and demand that action is taken against relevant officials.
- Contract performance and monitoring measures were not in place to ensure effective contract management;
- Municipal officials failed to disclose close family members who have a private or business interest in contracts with the municipality;
- Some unauthorised and irregular expenditure was not investigated to determine liability; and
- During the current water crisis, water losses of R86 994 953 were recorded. This signifies a 34% loss compared to the 18% water loss recorded in 2021.
Without the abolishment of cadre deployment and implementation of consequence management, Polokwane Municipality is bound to repeat past transgressions.
Polokwane is in the grips of water shortages compounded by ANC-manufactured loadshedding and needs a transparent government that gets things done.
It is not by chance that the top five municipalities in South Africa are DA-led. Where we govern, we govern well.