EC municipality to probe how officials blew a whopping R4bn

OR Tambo district municipality has set up a committee to investigate how the district authority managed to incur more than R4 billion in unauthorised‚ irregular‚ wasteful and fruitless expenditure in just five years.

The resolution was taken during a council meeting where the executive mayor Nomakhosazana Meth presented a report requesting council to write-off the expenditure. It refused to do so and set up the probe instead.

This means each year‚ for the past five years‚ OR Tambo had irregular‚ fruitless‚ unauthorised and wasteful expenditure of almost R1 billion. Unauthorised spend amounted to a staggering R2.2 billion‚ irregular expenditure to R1.6 billion and fruitless and wasteful expenditure to R24.2 million. The report seen by the Daily Dispatch  did not detail what the money was spent on what.

This is the same district authority that in 2014 received a sixth consecutive disclaimer. The auditor-general upgraded his findings to a qualified audit in 2014-15. After Meth’s presentation to council on September 30‚ council speaker Xolile Nkompela was mandated with establishing a five-member ad hoc committee to probe the figures.

This was after angry councillors resolved to probe the unauthorised‚ irregular‚ wasteful and fruitless expenditure. However‚ the committee‚ which consists of four ANC councillors and one from the DA‚ has yet to start its probe‚ more than two weeks after it was appointed.

The Public Service Accountability Monitor (PSAM) and opposition parties have condemned the high figures‚ with the EFF labelling it “planned corruption”.

 TMG Digital/DispatchLIVE