Municipality to write off millions

During the recent meeting of the Polokwane Municipal Council, it was resolved that irregular and unauthorised expenditure amounting to millions be written off, but for a change, the local authority resolved that just under R5m be recovered from officials and persons responsible for fruitless expenditure.

- Barry Viljoen

The amounts to be written off included R176 829 870 that was paid to a panel of lawyers without an adequate rotation and allocation policy, R38 262 020 for appointing Absa for fleet and equipment finance without a fair, transparent and cost-effective supply chain management process and R52 271 101 in unspent conditional grants that had to be returned to National Treasury. An amount of R417 882 716 in non-cash, unbudgeted expenditure (depreciation) was also written off.