PLETTENBERG BAY NEWS - The Plettenberg Bay Ratepayers' Association has slammed Bitou Municipality's annual report labelling it as having "virtually no value" as it does not comply with many of the minimum requirements according to them.
"For example, in the financial statements, it is reported that 'contracted services' are at 14%, whereas Treasury says the maximum should be 6%. Apart from raising a large red flag, it is meaningless," chair Peter Gaylard said.
He added that the standard of reporting in the annual report has sharply deteriorated over the years, a trend he believes accelerated over the past three years.
Some of the red flags the association picked up on in the 2018/2019 draft annual report was a heading labelled "business and advisory" on which R2.85-million was spent in 2019. Nothing was spent on this the year before.
Gaylard requested the municipality to provide a definition for the heading and to explain under what it was reported on in the past.
He added that R1.6-million was spent on town planning compared to the previous year's R174 027. "What is this for? Why the massive increase? Why was permanent staff not used?"
The report also indicates that in 2019, R1-million was spent on event promoters. "What heading was it reported under in the past for comparison purposes? What events? Why this magnitude of expenses contrary to Treasury guidelines?"
The association is also concerned about an almost R7-million increase in licence fees; a more than R1-million increase in skills development levies; and a R2.6-million increase in membership fees and subscriptions.
Gaylard said building contractors (R5-million), illegal dumping (R1.74-million) and fire services (R604 395) were also headings that did not show up in the previous report and therefore it was not possible to draw comparisons.
Other increases that have raised concerns for the association include cleaning services which were up from R20 340 to R1.16-million; litter picking from R196 347 to R448 505; learnerships/internships from R8.8-million to R9.1-million; and maintenance of buildings and facilities from R2.4-million to R5.9-million.
Maintenance of unspecified assets were also up from R3.6-million to R11.7-million; local travel from R1.2-million to R1.8-million; fuel and oil from R7.3-million to R8.3-million; civil engineering services from R21.7-million to R33.3-million; electrical engineering services from R332 451 to R2.7-million; and legal advice and litigation from R6.3-million to R7.5-million.
When asked for comment, municipal spokesperson Andile Namntu said, "The Municipal Public Accounts committee (the oversight committee) takes note of the comments from the ratepayers' association. These comments will be responded to by the municipal manager, advocate Lonwabo Ngoqo, in due course."
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