Tshwane city mayor Randall Williams has insisted that no money is missing following auditor general (AG) Tsakani Maluleke’s findings on the metro’s finances.
The leaked 28-page report found irregular expenditure of around R10 billion, and wasteful and wasteful expenditure cut by more than R1 billion for the 2021/2022 financial year.
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The audit also details how the metropolitan municipality failed to reveal the reasons for deviating from supply chain management regulations, which resulted in financial reports overstated by R488 million.
The Democratic Alliance (DA)-led government blamed former chief financial officer (CFO) Umar Banda.
‘Money is not lost’
Talk to Radio 702 Friday, Williams accepted the report of the auditor-general, but pointed out that the amount of irregular expenditures piled up over a period of time.
“R10 billion [irregular expense] it is the accumulated amount for the last 12 years since 2011. So it is not the amount of one year,” he said.
“The irregular expenditure for the financial year under discussion is R1,2 billion. If you look at the useless and wasteful expenditure, here is the misconduct of the CFO. The amount of useless and wasteful expenditure is R8 million with a budget of R44 billion.
Williams said Banda’s contract has since been terminated for financial misconduct.
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“They did not disclose these transactions in the City’s financial statements. No one raised them because they were not included. You really have to sit with the bank statements, invoices [and] such requisition orders are taken by the AG,” he said.
The Tshwane mayor further dismissed suggestions that some of the money was unaccounted for.
“The money is not lost. Money is paid somewhere that should not be paid. It is paid for Sars [South African Revenue Service]. So it’s not money lost, but we now know that the process outlined for the audit is inadequate.
“We need to go beyond that process and add additional processes. Instead of having an audit once a year, we have a monthly audit with the AG. We are creating a new process that will prevent this from happening again.
Motion of no confidence
Meanwhile, the ANC caucus in Tshwane wants to pass another motion of no confidence in Williams over the controversial R26 billion power station revamp tender.
Asked if he was confident he would survive the move, Williams said: “I am serving at the behest of my party and my coalition partners. [so] it was not my decision, but it is not the first time that the ANC has brought a no-confidence motion against me. They have been there many times over the years so there is nothing new”.
The next Tshwane city council meeting will be held on January 26.
ANC regional secretary George Matjila indicated on Tuesday that the caucus would “prepare for a battle ahead” of the council meeting.
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“We will engage like-minded parties in the council on the possibility of a motion of no confidence [the mayor] and its executive. He has sent the last nail [in] coffin, and we will not ignore our responsibility as the opposition party and the majority in the Tshwane council,” Matjila said during a press conference.
Last August, the ANC tried to have Williams removed from office, but failed.
Williams came under fire after audio recordingwhere the mayor can be heard allegedly instructing officials to support the executive decision for the R26 billion project, this was leaked.
He was later investigated independently.