According to a statement issued by the Democratic Alliance, the recent audit outcomes of local government in the Eastern Cape for the last financial year highlighted the declining state of municipal finances in the province.
“This is particularly so in the case of supply chain management,” the party’s provincial spokesperson for finance, Bobby Stevenson, said on Friday.
“In 2009/10 the total amount of irregular expenditure in supply chain management was R839-million, in 2010/11 it was R1.38-billion and in 2011/12 it was R1.88-billion,” it said. This was an increase of R1.041-billion over two years.
"The ANC’s chickens of cadre deployment and the appointment of inept officials continue to come home and roost with a vengeance. Local government is facing a massive crisis because the demands for service delivery and poverty alleviation cannot be met by the ANC’s poor style of governance. The cock is crowing louder and louder that the ANC won’t do."
Unfair procurement processes
The DA blamed unfair and uncompetitive procurement processes for being the root cause of corruption and maladministration in the Eastern Cape.
“Tenders are often only awarded at the last minute so normal supply chain processes are bypassed. There is often a case where value for money is not received,” Stevenson added.
“Public accounts committees need to interrogate irregular supply chain expenditure and hold officials accountable. Political interference which impacts negatively on the administration needs to be eradicated. The auditor general referred to 11 municipalities where this was having an impact."
On Wednesday the Mail & Guardian reported that North West municipalities spent R29-million on consultants to help prepare financial statements for audit in the past financial year.
North West Premier Thandi Modise said on Tuesday the millions spent on consultants just to prepare financial statements did "not commensurate with minimal improvement that they [municipalities] have registered".