Press Statement by Hannah Peachey: DA Councillor in Msukaligwa Local Municipality
The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Msukaligwa has written to the Municipal Manager, Maqhawe Kunene, requesting him to urgently implement an effective plan that will regulate the municipality’s oil and fuel expenditure.
This comes after we discovered that there are serious discrepancies in the municipality’s fleet department. For instance, the municipality does not have proper documentation to confirm its fuel and oil expenses.
As a result, the Auditor General (AG) has raised concerns that her office is unable to verify whether the fuel and oil expenditure is business related and valid.
The AG further noted that the municipality only relies solely on the bank statements from FNB to verify the validity and occurrence of fuel and oil expenses and does not perform a reconciliation using other supporting documents such as receipts
Therefore, this approach assumes that a payment reflected on the bank statement automatically confirms that the related transaction is valid and occurred for business purposes. A transaction list from the 2024/25 financial year demonstrates how the municipality spent between R9000 and R200 000 on the municipality’s fleet.
However, after assessing these transactions the AG highlighted that she could not confirm the occurrence and if these were for work.It must be noted that the municipality’s failure to keep
sufficient supporting documentation in this regard is in contravention of section 62 of the Municipal Finance Management Act.
This blatant disregard for basic accountability and asset protection.The municipality’s conduct is not only unethical and unbecoming. With this in mind, we expect the Municipal Manager to take accountability and ensure that resources of the municipality are used effectively, efficiently and economically.
Municipal vehicles should be used to enhance service delivery and nothing else. The DA will continue to put pressure on the municipality to ensure that this situation is turned around. The people of Msukaligwa deserve transparent and ethical governance.