The National Treasury has issued a statement, announcing that it is withholding an equitable share grant of nearly R2bn from Nelson Mandela Bay because of our metro’s “persistent and serious non-compliance with the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA)”.
The statement said Treasury had taken this “corrective measure” against our metro and other named defaulting municipalities to “instil fiscal discipline and ensure that public money is properly managed”.
It noted that management of public funds by our municipality had deteriorated “despite support provided by National Treasury through guidance, engagement and formal and informal communication”.
This is the strongest rebuke yet from the highest financial management office in government.
Mayor Babalwa Lobishe’s administration responded with a statement claiming that “the municipality has already commenced implementing a programme of financial governance reforms aimed at complying with the MFMA”.
At best this is PR hogwash and, at worst, an attempt to mislead the residents of Nelson Mandela Bay and the business community.
The true picture is that of repeat offenders who operate almost with impunity year after year in an administration where they can evade accountability — and the political leadership, for whatever reason, looks the other way.
The chair of the municipal public accounts committee (MPAC), councillor Luxolo Namette, was quoted in The Herald recently expressing his frustration that the committee was struggling to do its oversight work because of non-cooperation by administration officials.
He said a number of meetings had to be cancelled because senior managers had failed to submit mandatory financial reports.
Some of the required documentation was said to be missing or damaged in office flooding.
MPAC is responsible for interrogating the R30bn (the highest in the country) that the municipality has racked up in irregular, unauthorised, wasteful and fruitless expenditure, and which has caused National Treasury to withhold the funding.
In terms of the law, officials who fail to give a credible account to MPAC for irregular expenditure should be referred to the municipality’s disciplinary board to face the consequences for their infractions.
National Treasury’s assertion that the municipality’s flouting of the MFMA is “persistent and serious” is borne out by the fact that on Lobishe’s watch, senior managers are still trying to evade accountability by impeding the MPAC process, and seem to be getting away with it.
In the midst of the R30bn irregular expenditure crisis not a single senior manager has been reprimanded or disciplined for failing to submit a report required by MPAC. And not a word from the mayor.
Clearly the MEC for Cogta had a point when, out of apparent frustration, he made the damning public remark that trying to assist the metro under the current political leadership was like saving a pig stuck in the mud. And the pig wants to stay in the mud.
Ntozonke Ndzima, New Brighton
