Municipality spends R500m on consultants

THE Nelson Mandela Bay Metro municipality spent close to R500-million on consultants in the last financial year‚ more than R100-million on private security.

Councillors at a municipal public accounts committee meeting on Tuesday queried the amounts‚ saying some of the consultants were duplicating the jobs of metro staff.

According to the auditorgeneral’s report‚ the city spent more than R495-million on consultants.

These include private security‚ meter-reading services‚ grass-cutting‚ stadium management and transport operations‚ among other services.

Budget and treasury political head, Retief Odendaal, said the city had to drastically cut consultant costs.

“We should be significantly concerned … in terms of contracted services, how this has been bloated over the years‚” he said at the meeting, noting “the budgeted amount was actually R333-million”. — TMG