‘Shoddy’ budget withdrawn

Shoddy work

NDLAMBE mayor Sipho Tandani unconditionally withdrew the tabled adjustment budget at the special council meeting last Friday after its many errors and inconsistencies were pointed out by DA caucus leader Raymond Schenk.

“[The budget] has been very poorly put together,” said Schenk. “We did not put our minds to the errors it contains.”

Following the disclaimer from the auditor-general (AG) in the most recent municipal audit report, the worst result Ndlambe has achieved in the last five years, the submission of an error-filled adjustment budget will, at best, guarantee a qualified audit, said finance director Howard Dredge.

Schenk added that the adjustment budget as proposed could not be submitted and wanted to know who was responsible for its compilation. “There is a R68-million adjustment that must be accounted for,” he said. “Who in the municipality is going to take respon- sibility? We cannot condone shoddy work like this. We have gone backwards since the very harsh AG report. If we accept this standard then we are complicit.”

Dredge explained that the new figures needed to be with the AG by the end of February, effectively last Friday, otherwise it would become a problem for the municipality in the new (2015/16) financial year. He asked if some of the items could be allowed through as this would limit the municipality’s culpability.

However, Tandani said that the only honourable thing to do was to withdraw the budget in its entirety. He added that the adjustment budget would need to be reworked properly before being resubmitted. No date was set for the resubmission. Retirement benefits The meeting also heard that the municipality has been paying 70% of the retirement benefits contribution without any supporting documentation.

According to Dredge, this is a historic problem and the practice has been in force since 1992 and regarded as the retiree’s conditions of service. However, the standard is currently a 60/40 split. It was approved that the medical aid contributions should be set at 60% Ndlambe and 40% employee and that the 70/30 split for retirement benefits be maintained until a collective bargaining council has set a new figure. Motor vehicle allowance The AG’s report stated that the formula used to calculate motor vehicle expenses did not satisfy its requirements. Dredge therefore proposed that the omission of cents in the rand be condoned and that the following formula be adopted:

Allowance = fixed cost rates + fuel costs + maintenance, all as per SARS tables. Councillor Khululwa Ncamiso asked that all motor vehicle allowance policies be made available to the council. Dredge said that all policies will be published with the final adjustment budget report.

Casual and general worker policy

Dredge said that the AG had also been dissatisfied with the way casual and temporary workers were being paid. He said that the AG required all such workers be compensated according to the rates as set down for Extended Public Works Programme (EPWP) workers. Dredge said that the rate of R100 per day for casual or general workers cannot be applied unilaterally and applied only to EPWP workers. “We cannot employ some temporary workers at R100 per day, and these are skills we might require,” said Dredge.

Tandani said that the council needed to know how these general and casual workers were being paid.

“The rates for EPWP workers are known, but not all workers are paid at those rates,” said Tandani.

Dredge proposed that skilled temporary workers be exempted from the stated daily rate. He asked that the rates of equivalent municipal workers be benchmarked to give a rate for skilled temporary workers.

The resolution was approved by council.