THE mayor of Rustenburg, Mpho Khunou dismissed claims that the municipality wasted R3bn in the 2014/15 financial year.

The reports were carried in the Mail & Guardian, City Press and the Sunday Times newspapers.

Khunou said: “In our view this is misleading because it suggests that this money has been wasted. It has been illustrated as such in a form of a waste bin. The article in the M&G has indicated that money to the tune of R3.08bn has been wasted in financial year of 2014/15.

“However we strongly refuted that and the municipality has a budget of R4.5bn during financial year under review. The total expenditure incurred was R3.6bn. Therefore the municipality dismiss reports that an amount of R3.08bn was “misspent” during the 2014/15 financial year,” he said.

The mayor added that the municipality has spent R1 425 766 on bulk purchases, R233 395 on contracted services, R242 557 on general expenses, repairs and maintenance used R118 075, while R15 036 was spent on collection cost.

“We have also spent R561 709 on employee related costs and R27 593 was used for remuneration of councillors. This brings us to the tune of R2 574 131.

The expenditure was stated in the audited annual financial statements of the institution.

“The bulk purchases include payments for bulk electricity and water purchased from the relevant suppliers (Magalies Water, Rand Water and Eskom). This also includes the repairs and maintenance of infrastructure and contracted services undertaken by the municipality,” he said.

Khunou said the expenditure for the year has been audited. He added that only an amount of R537 000 was reported as fruitless and wasteful expenditure.

“Fruitless and wasteful expenditure constitutes a fraction of the budget of R4.5 billion which is 0.01%. And the outline on the expenditure related to employee costs and bulk purchases was only to the amount of R537 000.

“The Auditor General has made a determination of irregular expenditure which spans a period of about ten years. The inclusion of these amounts in the irregular expenditure register is an indication of a belief that the expenditure was incurred without following a statutory provision and does NOT mean that the municipality lost money,” he said.

He further said that the recorded fruitless and wasteful expenditure to the amount of R537 000 as certified by the auditor general was mainly incurred as a result of interests charged.

“An amount of R2 642 130 471.66 on the irregular expenditure register has accumulated over at least three terms of Rustenburg municipal councils. Therefore the municipality is addressing a legacy of irregular expenditure emanated at least ten years.

“The 2014/15 audit report issued by the auditor general stated an amount of irregular expenditure of R657 889 400.69. This amount is being investigated and the preliminary report indicates that there was no negligence or money lost,” he said.

-TDN

Follow us on Twitter@Taung_DailyNews or @IceT_

taungdailynews@gmail.com