Madibeng Municipality embezzling public funds

20 October 2014

The DA is in possession of a leaked Internal Audit Report for Madibeng Local Municipality in the North West on its unauthorised expenditure for the 2013/2014 financial year. The report found inadequate internal controls in place for management to mitigate risks involved with finances of the Municipality. 

The report was produced by the Municipality's Acting Manager: Internal Audit.

The report found:

Non-compliance with supply chain management rules, budget procedures, Treasury Office Policies and Procedures;

Inadequate division of duties by financial officers;

Insufficient and ineffective independent review functions; and

Inadequate and incomplete audit trail documentation. 

Further findings were recorded as follows: 

It took 19 min: 13 sec. for a Financial Officer to channel off R2.2 million without a single signature or approval; 

Inflating of prices to influence tender awards;

Payments to service providers for services that were never rendered; and

Fraud.

In light of these findings, the DA calls on the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA), Pravin Gordhan, to place Madibeng under Section 136 (1)(b) administration as the financial crisis in Madibeng is untenable and residents are suffering the consequences. We further call for the necessary criminal and disciplinary action in terms of the Municipal Finance Management Act to be initiated without delay.

Minister Gordhan and the Provincial MEC for COGTA must intervene. All remedial action and recommendations made by the Internal Auditor must be implemented immediately, and to do so the Municipality must be placed under administration.

Last week, the DA leaked another Madibeng secret report showing catastrophic failures in the water supply in Madibeng and the systemic failures in water supply countrywide.

Madibeng is also the very Municipality where four people were killed in protest action, demanding access to clean drinking water, earlier this year.

There is a major crisis of governance in Madibeng and Minister Gordhan must prove that he is willing to make the difficult decisions necessary to turn this tragedy around.

Statement issued by Kevin Mileham MP, DA Shadow Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, October 20 2014

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