Pretoria – ActionSA national chairperson Michael Beaumont says his party wants consequences in the City of Tshwane, which is under fire for incurring an adverse audit opinion from the auditor-general for the 2021/22 financial year.
ActionSA, as a partner in the DA-led coalition running the capital city, wants top officials in the municipality including the mayor, Randall Williams, to face consequences.
“Let me state from the outset that we are very concerned about this outcome. We, as a political party, are not going to try and sugar-coat this, and say it is less bad than it is. It’s bad and there have to be consequences,” Beaumont spoke to broadcaster Newzroom Afrika.
“By way of example, the figures around unauthorised, fruitless, irregular and wasteful expenditure, in the auditor-general’s report, stand at over R10 billion. We know that in the financial year in question it was actually R1.2bn. That R10bn is an accumulative figure over 10 years. But R1.2bn is far too much.
“There are a lot of things in this report that we are deeply concerned about.”
Beaumont said while former Tshwane chief financial officer Umar Banda should carry some of the blame for the dismal audit outcome, the political leadership in Tshwane had also failed.
“In our view there has been a role played by the CFO, where a lot of documents and submissions to the auditor-general did not take place, and the consequence is a negative finding, especially when those documents were available to be submitted.
“I think, from our point of view, we are very concerned about the lack of political oversight and leadership on this particular issue. ActionSA has entered the coalition discussion on this matter, saying we understand the issue about the CFO. There must be accountability for municipal officials, but what do we talk about when we say political leadership and political accountability,” he said.
“You cannot just have politicians who point to municipal officials when things go badly, and when things go well it is the political leadership’s credit to be taken.”
Beaumont said Williams must shoulder some of the blame.
“There is no question, the mayor is the leader of the government. The buck stops with the mayor and I think there is an appreciation of that completely. As a multi-party coalition government, we are not going to go through this exercise to push blame on one person. There is a mayoral committee which consists of a number of parties including ActionSA,” he said.
Critics have slammed the DA-led multi-party coalition government for the worst financial performance in the history of the municipality.
A leaked audit report, dated November 2022, came a month after municipal manager Johann Mettler sacked Banda for financial misconduct after he misrepresented the city’s 2021/22 financial statements to the auditor-general.
Banda’s court bid to overturn the decision to fire him was dismissed at the High Court, Pretoria, in December.
The AG report, seen by the “Pretoria News”, flagged the municipality for failing to account for millions of rand it claimed to have spent on various service delivery activities.
In many instances, the city was found wanting for submitting incorrect and incomplete financial statements, resulting in the auditor-general issuing adverse audit findings.
According to the auditor-general, an adverse audit opinion is given when the financial statements contain material misstatements that are not confined to specific amounts, or the misstatements represent a substantial portion of the financial statements.
The “Pretoria News” reported that the audit report showed that the auditor-general was unable to determine the impact on the disclosed net carrying amount of property, plant and equipment, stated at R52 847 571 646, as it was impracticable to do so.
The city was flagged for not correctly valuing assets relating to electricity, roads and stormwater infrastructure assets, as well as community, in accordance with the Standards of Generally Recognised Accounting Practice.
Assets under construction relating to electricity infrastructure were incorrectly classified as completed assets.
IOL