Jobs for pals bankrupting our municipalities
FOR the past seven years AuditorGeneral Kimi Makwetu has been warning the ANC against cadre deployment in municipalities and state-owned entities.
Yet again his warnings have fallen on deaf ears. Yet again the figures of financial mismanagement in municipalities is disastrous, with only 20 out of a total of 257 municipalities obtaining a clean audit last year.
The South African Human Rights Commission has voiced its concerns about the audit outcomes in Makwetu’s municipal finance report. Even the president is “extremely worried” about the situation.
One of the reasons given for the dilemma is a massive shortage of municipal managers and chief financial officers in most of the municipalities.
The shortage opens doors to fraud, corruption and “irregular expenditure”, which in layman’s terms is theft. Makwetu has told the ANC hierarchy time and time again that the major cause of the continuing rise of financial losses is the deployment of loyal ANC cadres to positions that they are unqualified for.
It obviously matters not to the ANC that the cadre placed in such a responsible position is clueless and not able to fulfil their obligations and responsibilities. As long as they are loyal party members they will be appointed.
The perpetrators of the constant and ever-rising financial catastrophe are not concerned with the situation as they know full well that there will be no accountability or consequence management to follow.
An unforgivable display of financial irresponsibility by the ruling party.