The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Johannesburg welcomes the updated MFMA Circular No. 68 issued by National Treasury for better management of irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure.
Amongst others, this now allows for UIFW recovery if goods/services were not delivered.
In Johannesburg the City is facing an accountability crisis under the ANC-led coalition.
The rules are clear, and the necessary frameworks are already in place. What is lacking is the consistent enforcement of those rules and meaningful consequence management.
Irregular expenditure continues to be repeated year after year, with limited accountability and complicit cadres being redeployed to other departments instead of facing the full might of the law.
Instead of addressing the root causes, there is an increasing tendency to justify non-compliance after the fact.
In the meantime, residents bear the consequences through declining service delivery, failing infrastructure, and a City that is not meeting its basic obligations like publishing financial statements timeously and paying suppliers on time.
The DA will not accept this as the status quo and will:
•Ensure stronger oversight to allow for full transparency on all irregular and wasteful expenditure.
•Insist on consequence management for those responsible.
•Not hesitate to start opening criminal cases against officials and politicians as per section 173 of the MFMA which deals with criminal liability relating to financial misconduct, providing allowances for criminal prosecution as a result of failures.
The DA remains committed to restoring sound financial governance and ensuring that public funds are used to deliver services to residents under Mayor Helen Zille once elected.