Polokwane - A Limpopo district municipality has appointed a watchdog body to monitor the use of municipal funds.
The Capricorn district municipality, which sits in Polokwane, appointed a nine-member team to run the district's "first ever" municipal public accounts committee (MPAC), which will ensure that public funds are used correctly.
"It is for the first time ever that the municipality has a public accounts committee. The team will work like parliament's standing committee on public accounts, which brings all responsible individuals to book over how public funds are used," said district spokesperson, Moffat Senyatsi, on Wednesday.
Senyatsi said the newly established MPAC will monitor how budgets are used, how much revenue was made, how much under-spending incurred, financial irregularities or any non-compliance with the Municipal Finance Management Act.
During the official unveiling of the team on Monday, district mayor Lawrence Mapoulo said the team would also probe irregularities and financial impropriety.
"Seeing that poor financial management, inadequate accountability systems impact negatively on service delivery, the municipality is confident that the new team will make an enormous contribution to ensuring that thorough probes are done," said Mapoulo.
He said the district council resolved that MPAC members must have necessary access to information and required resources. This will include access to information from the executive, support staff qualified to analyse such information and to financial and procurement information relevant to matters before the MPAC.
"MPAC will shape the public accounts process of receiving annual reports from speakers, reviewing documents and obtaining briefings from the Auditor-General," said Mapoulo.
The committee will also analyse responses and a convene hearing for the executive to account, make findings, prepare a report back to the council speaker. The speaker will submit the report to the council for resolutions to enable council to monitor progress in their implementation.
The MPAC members are Sam Ramashala, Mapitsi Mokaba, Edward Nkadimeng, Solly Mashego, Betty Ramatsoma, Mahlodi Ntlatla, Frans Letwaba, Modiba Sedibane and Kwena Makgoka.
The appointment of MPAC comes days after municipal manager Merriam Molala tendered in her resignation on January 26.
Molala resigned from the district municipality following her suspension on undisclosed charges in September last year.
"Molala's resignation came whilst the matter was still going through a disciplinary procedure. Another hearing was scheduled for this week and that's when she indicated her intention to resign," said Senyatsi.
Senyatsi said the municipality had reached an agreement with Molala's legal representatives not to disclose reasons behind her suspension.
Senyatsi would only say that Molala had been given a period of seven days to appeal her suspension on September 26, which she did not do. He also said Molala was not given a golden handshake.
