UNCOOPERATIVE GOVERNANCE: Nelson Mandela Bay opposition accuses coalition of U-turn on R23bn UIFWE write-off

{JSON.stringify(article.attachments[0], null, 2)} --> Opposition parties accuse Nelson Mandela Bay’s ruling coalition of hypocrisy after National Treasury forced it to backtrack on a R23-billion UIFWE write-off.

The ACDP in Nelson Mandela Bay has accused Municipal Public Accounts Committee (MPAC) chair Luxolo Namette and Mayor Babalwa Lobishe of an embarrassing U-turn after backing a proposed R23-billion unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure write-off without first conducting an item-by-item investigation, only to now position themselves as champions of accountability.

The investigation they sought to bypass is meant to establish liability, determine whether money can be recovered, ensure consequence management and identify matters that warrant criminal investigation.

It took a blunt intervention from National Treasury’s deputy director-general for intergovernmental relations, Ogalaletseng Gaarekwe, on 19 August to derail the proposal. Gaarekwe told the city that MPAC’s recommendation for the council to approve a blanket write-off was unlawful and did not comply with Section 32 of the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA).

The letter followed complaints from the ACDP and DA to Treasury, which had warned that MPAC’s recommendation to write off the unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure (UIFWE) was unlawful because it bypassed due process.

The city postponed Tuesday’s council meeting, which was due to consider the UIFWE matter among other items, and rescheduled it for Thursday.

ACDP councillor Lance Grootboom said he completely rejected the “dishonest spin of a media statement released today by Namette and Lobishe. It takes unbelievable political arrogance for this administration to issue a public statement pretending they are champions of accountability and against blanket write-offs, when everyone knows they were caught red-handed and stopped dead in their tracks by the National Treasury.”

Media Release_nmbm Mpac Intensify Work for Liability and Accountability Namette voted with the ANC and EFF during an MPAC meeting earlier this month to push through the staggering UIFWE bill write-off by way of filing an affidavit with the police and registering a case for investigation by acting city manager Lonwabo Ngoqo.

In a statement published by the municipality on Tuesday, Namette said MPAC was intensifying its work to assess individual UIFWE.

“The work being undertaken by MPAC is specifically directed at ensuring that each UIFWE item is properly identified, profiled and assessed before any recommendation is made to council. Where there is evidence of wrongdoing, the appropriate accountability processes must follow. Where expenditure is recoverable, every reasonable effort must be made to recover it. Where matters require further investigation, they must be referred through the appropriate channels.

“The R23-billion UIFWE balance is therefore not being treated as one amount that can simply be written off. MPAC is dealing with the individual matters that make up the register.