THE unsustainable budget of the Enoch Mgijima Municipality in Komani has led its finances to the brink of collapse, according to a statement released by the Democratic Alliance this week.
According to the DA, the annual financial statements for the year ended June 30, 2019, show a cash or cash equivalent balance of R11.56 million. However, while another R422.4 million have been stated, this amount is missing from the bank account.
The amount comprises of running expenses to be paid to creditors (R282.3 million), employee benefits (R51.8 million), post-retirement benefits (R42.5 million), grant for landfill sites (R27 million), consumer deposits (electricity – R10.2 million) and unspent conditional grants (R8.6 million).
Jane Cowley, DA constituency leader, has called on the municipal manager to establish a multi-party budgeting forum to oversee all spending patterns of the municipality. The forum would then have to be furnished with weekly cash flow statements for scrutiny.
In order to eradicate all wasteful expenditure, Cowley also insisted that a new operationally efficient work plan be drawn up and strictly adhered to.
“We will approach the Special Investigations Unit to conduct a full forensic audit on the administration, in order to establish where the missing funds have gone,” Cowley said in a press release on Monday.
“We will not allow the financial buck to be passed on to the ratepayers to subsidise the incompetence of officials. The buck stops with the accounting officers.”
No comment could be obtained from Enoch Mgijima Municipality spokesperson, Lonwabo Kowa, at the time of going to print.
