Irregularities in financial management matters of the Makhado Municipality may soon not be overlooked anymore.

One such an instance of irregular expenditure allegedly happened when advocates were paid R1000 per hour, whereas the approved hourly rate of Council is said to be R650 for sen-ior legal services.

“Previously, municipal officials had not been held accountable in their personal capacity for negligence in financial management. The time has come that officials and politicians will be held responsible for their actions and deeds,” was the comment of the Democratic Alliance on the incident.

In the labour matter between the previous municipal manager, me Faith Muthambi, and the Makhado Municipality, the municipality made use of the legal firm Mohlaba and Moshoana Incorporated. Their tax invoice dated September 16 last year showed the amount due and payable by the municipality to be just over R66 000. Upon inspection of the breakdown of the tax invoice, some of the line items with the description pertaining to legal fees amounted to a billable hourly rate of R1 000. As municipal manager at the time, Muthambi launched an inquiry into the matter. In the meantime, Muthambi resigned and was inaugurated as Member of Parliament on May 6.

The crux of the matter, according to the DA, is that financial payments have to be in accordance with Council policy, otherwise irregular expenditure will be incurred by the municipality. In cases where irregular expenditure has been incurred, the responsible municipal officers should be held liable in their personal capacity. In an exceptional case, or where policies are deemed to be outdated, an amendment to the standing policy first has to be tabled and approved, before a higher-than-approved hourly rate for legal services can be authorised and paid out to an external service provider.

“In the Makhado Municipality, there is a policy in place for the use of legal expertise. There are guidelines put in place in conjunction with the Municipal Financial Management Act. If there is a need to revise the fee for legal expertise, it has to come to a full Council meeting for recommendation,” said Mr Jacques Smalle, Member of the Provincial Legislature and provincial leader of the DA.

Smalle said that the DA will table a motion to Council to investigate if there had been a prior amendment to policy before the approval of the payment. If there had been any irregularity of payment, the DA will request an immediate repayment of any expenditure incurred over the approved limit for the hourly billable rate.

“I will personally take up irregular, unauthorised, fruitless and wasteful expenditure by the municipality with the MEC of Finance … we must remember we work with the taxpayers’ money and that money must be used for delivery of service to the public. If we allow the continuance of misman-agement of public funds, we will never achieve our ultimate goal of effective and efficient service delivery to the public, “Smalle said.

At the time of going to press, Makhado Municipality spokesperson Mr Louis Bobodi had yet to respond to media enquiries regarding the matter, made on May 18. A message was received on Monday that the spokesperson was out of town but that he “will check with the office if they already have information.”