Back-pay costs not adding up

THE Nelson Mandela Bay municipality must explain why the city spent R477 000 more than the amount approved by council to give back-pay to ward committees last year.

The council agreed to pay R4 050 000 in back-pay to 450 ward committee members last year, but the auditor-general’s report showed the city actually paid out R 4 527 000.

The AG identified the excess amount as unauthorised expenditure.

Last year, the council gave the go-ahead for officials to pay ex-gratia amounts of R9 000 to each ward committee member for the period October 2011 to July 2014.

At a municipal public accounts committee meeting yesterday, there was a standoff between ANC and DA councillors over the matter.

The DA’s Morne Steyn said he believed the structures for the back-pay had not been properly established.

“There must be an investigation on the matter as to which councillors voted for the payment to ward committees. And there must be consequence management to that. The decision was unlawful,” Steyn said.

But ANC councillor Ncediso Captain said there was no need to investigate a council resolution.

“The DA did not participate in that issue. These ward committees were not paid for years, and the council took a decision to back-pay them.

“We cannot investigate a council resolution. Let us investigate the excess amount that was not approved,” Captain said.

DA councillor Retief Odendaal said what they wanted was an investigation to determine if the payment to ward committees was lawful, and why the city had spent more.

“We want to find our the legality of the payments.”

The DA took the matter to court last year but it was never finalised.

Odendaal said it did not make sense to proceed with the case when the term of the ward committees was to end before the August 3 elections.

The committee will also probe the irregular appointments of six mayoral coordinators which the AG said was in contravention with local government law.