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During a recent council sitting, the DA in Polokwane voted against the Unauthorized, Irregular, Fruitless and Wasteful (UIFW) Expenditure write off in excess of R34 million.

The Municipal Public Accounts Committee (MPAC) submitted a  report to request the write off of more than R34 million.

This amount included R7 million inherited from the disestablished Aganang Municipality, even though no proof of records other than the UIFW register was submitted to MPAC.

Included in the report were findings that no proof of bid advertisements and competitive bidding processes were followed.

It is  concerning that the same accounting officer of Aganang is now the accounting officer of the Capricorn District Municipality, who was also previously employed by Polokwane municipality.

Some of the transgressions with regards to the irregular expenditure at Polokwane Municipality include a case of fraudulent documents submitted with bid documents, extensions of scope and extensions of time without approval.

Further to the MPAC report , there was a separate report to write off over R19 million in irregular expenditure and nearly R500 000 in fruitless and wasteful expenditure of Polokwane Housing Association (PHA).

The DA was the only party that voted against the adoption of both these write off reports as we cannot approve reports where adequate consequence management has not been duly enforced.

We believe more must be done to indicate that the municipality is serious about transparency and enforcing supply chain processes.

To this day we await the follow up report with regards to what further steps were taken against implicated officials other than the two suspended officials as highlighted through the Bowman Gilfillan report of April 2023.

The DA  eagerly awaits more independent investigation reports to be submitted to Council, including the Mankweng Stadium report and will continue to be the voice of voters to advocate for full transparency and consequence management.

Issued by Jacques Joubert - DA Councillor- Polokwane Local Municipality