When senior officials of Ngaka Modiri Molema district municipality reported for duty on Tuesday morning, the last thing they had anticipated was a surprise visit by members of the Provincial Executive Council. MEC for Local Government and Human Settlements, Collen Maine accompanied by MEC for Finance, Enterprise and Economic Development, Wendy Nelson visited the institution to get first hand information with regard to the state of finances as well as general issues of governance in the institution that was once put under administration by the Provincial Government.
Both MECs sharply raised concerns that they have picked up from the institution’s general operations. Such includes the municipality’s dire financial status which has the potential of resulting in the municipality being unable to pay salaries for the next two months; bloated organizational structure which occurred due to unlawful employment of some staff which has drastically increased the municipality’s salary bill, usage of conditional grants for non-service delivery related activities and the snail pace in responding to urgent institutional matters.
MEC Maine called for the rebranding, repositioning and renewal of the image of Ngaka Modiri Molema District Municipality and the need for the municipal leadership to act on those managers who had caused irregular appointments of junior staff. “If we are really serious about rescuing this municipality the leadership of the institution needs to take action now. We can’t continue to talk about the wrongful acts and not take any action on them. A special council meeting needs to be convened urgently to take some firm stance on this matter. Heads must roll” charged MEC Maine.
He further called for lifestyle audit of senior managers urgently to get to the bottom of financial embezzlement in the municipality.
MEC Nelson said the personnel audit should also be escalated to Section 57 Managers to verify their salary levels. We might be having managers who are on abnormal salary levels, that is why we must relook at their letters of employment and their contracts. We really need to close all the gaps and this matter must be given the attention it deserves to stabilise the finances of this municipality urgently”.
In response, the acting Chief Financial Officer, Lormax Gopane, reiterated that the municipality has conventional plans that are in place to ensure that in future, the municipality should not encounter recurring financial issues. He also emphasised that the institution is striving to minimise debts in the best possible way.
The Acting Municipal Manager, Nono Dince further emphasized the municipality’s cost containment strategy. “We have cut down on catering, travelling and other unnecessary expenditure. The only expenses incurred are for essential municipality operations” she said.
Dince said the municipality will embark on an intense process of identifying possible ‘ghost’ employees in the month of April 2015. During this process, all municipal employees will be expected to provide their proof of employment letters and identification cards or booklets before receiving their salary cheques.
Meanwhile, both the council and management committed to settling all creditors accounts as well as act on the findings of the Auditor General in order to ensure sound financial management going forward.
Enquiries:
Ben Bole
Cell: 071 566 1399
E-mail: msbole@nwpg.gov.za
