The Democratic Alliance say they have absolutely no confidence in the so-called action plan of the Makhado Municipality to rectify its financial crisis in a few months.

Following the damning report of the Auditor-General (AG) on the financial year 2009/10, the municipal manager has instructed the Chief Financial Officer to compile an action plan which is to address all findings of the AG by April 2011. Another component of the plan is that the AG will be invited to give advice and to monitor the progress of the action plan before the start of the next budget cycle.

“It is already March. There is no way that it is possible for the municipal manager to fulfill that promise. They give the impression that they are on top of it, but the truth is that they have committed punishable offences according to the Municpal Financial Management Act. We insist that the municipality be put under administration,” said DA Councillor Annette Kennealy on Monday.

Kennealy said that you cannot deny the facts in the AG report. Among other frightening figures, R24 million simply cannot be traced, R173m in assets cannot be verified and R122m had been written off.

“The spending pattern also needs to be considered. ‘Other expenditure’ reduced the budget by R71million. Outstanding debt grew with R24m to R131m with R19m older that 365 days and R107m between 121 and more than 365 days, “ Kennealy said.

The DA stressed the point that, according to the AG, the Municipal Manager as accounting officer did “not exercise oversight responsibility over reporting and compliance by management with laws, regulations and internally designed policies and procedures.” Non-compliance issues were noted with reference to financial and performance management, to the accounting officer, to governance, to expenditure, to supply chain management, and to financial statements.

The outgoing chairperson of the Soutpansberg Ratepayers Association, Mr Frans Prinsloo, agreed that the action plan was not convincing. Prinsloo said that it is almost laughable that there is an “action plan” to tell the CFO to do his job, which he should have done five years ago. “Why do they need the AG to come in and help, when they accepted highly salaried posts on the grounds of their own expertise?” Prinsloo asked.

Empty promises seem to be a regular thing on the part of the municipal management. “We heard wonderful promises that the municipality was going to sort out all the financial problems as a matter of priority. That was in 2008 at the annual general meeting of the SRPA. They are very good with promises,” Prinsloo said.