A-G delivers landmark win for accountability

Holding public officials personally liable is long overdue

- NKOSIKHULULE NYEMBEZI

SOMETIMES you need to pull on the thread. That is how it felt when Auditor General Tsakani Maluleke announced a ‘significant milestone’ to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Auditor General on November 14, stating that she had issued her first certificate of debt against Allan Losaba, the municipal manager of the Ngaka Modiri Molema District Municipality in the North West.

These actions make Losaba the first public official to be held personally liable for financial losses since the Public Audit Act gave the Auditor General strong powers in April 2019. The Auditor General issues the certificate as a ‘last resort’ after all attempts have failed in addressing the material irregularity with the accounting officer and their executive authority.

It all started in the 2018/19 financial year, when Maluleke began auditing a water tender in the Ngaka Modiri Molema District Municipality in North West to provide water tanker services as part of its drought relief programme. The contract ran between June 2018 and June 2020. The municipality extended it in May 2020 for three months, and again in August 2020 for yet another three months.

The audit revealed several irregularities causing serious financial losses in the municipality. These included the service provider's inflation of the amounts claimed for kilometres travelled and hours worked when delivering water to communities.

The Auditor General reported the material irregularity to the municipal manager Allan Losaba in 2019, who initially responded and made several commitments to address the issues. However, Losaba failed to provide adequate responses or to take action.

Yet in some ways, the damage was done to citizens who did not get the water paid for by the municipality. The irregularities spanned a long period, from 2018 to 2020, resulting in R4.6m financial losses, which became the basis of Maluleke’s powerful slap of Losaba with her first certificate of debt.