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Mr Isaac Mutshinyali.

MM reacts to allegations

 

The Makhado municipal manager, Mr Isaac Mutshinyali, this week reacted to the SAMWU memorandum in which the union members make several allegations as to the manner in which tenders are awarded and the council’s funds are being spent.

One of the allegations SAMWU makes, is that a tender to upgrade the electricity infrastructure was awarded to Spectrum Utility Management (Pty) Ltd without the proper procedure being followed. Mutshinyali said that in this specific case the regulations made provision for a municipality to participate in a tender already awarded by another municipality or organ of state.  “(The tender) was awarded to this company to survey the municipal electricity network and submit to DMR for future budgetary processes in which the municipality could benefit, and not using any municipal money or MIG as alleged,” he said.

Mutshinyali also commented on criticism that he had made multiple claims for relocating from Tzaneen to Louis Trichardt. “The Municipal Manager was paid a once-off relocation allowance in terms of the Employment Contract and the transporting of his furniture was paid directly to the service provider in terms of Council policy,” he said.

The money spent the past year on security to protect the municipal manager also came under SAMWU’s spotlight. The union is concerned that more than R300 000 was spent on the personal security of Mutshinyali. He defended this expenditure and said that it had been for both the municipal manager and mayor’s security and it had been approved by Council.

“All people should note that the municipal manager is not responsible for awarding tenders,” Mutshinyali said. He explained that several committees first sit and then make recommendations to the municipal manager. Should the municipal manager decide not to approve the recommendations of the adjudication committee, reasons must be provided to the auditor-general (AG), the provincial and national treasury and the provincial and national co-operative government departments. “Tenders are not only awarded based on price – there are matters such as the BEE scoring points that are also taken into consideration,” said Mutshinyali.

As far as service delivery is concerned, Mutshinyali said that there had been a big improvement over the past couple of years. “Our financial management and service delivery have improved drastically as evidenced in the past two AG reports wherein the municipality moved from more than 10 years’ disclaimers and adverse opinions, to an unqualified opinion,” he said.

Mutshinyali pointed out that there seemed to be some confusion as far as the appointment of staff was concerned. “The municipality has no temporary employees, but do have project employees, i.e. EPWP, and there is no agreement whatsoever reached with unions to provide temporary employees with permanent posts. All posts would be advertised for sound recruiting processes and be filled,” he said.

The municipal manager also invited any person with proof of public money being used by the mayor, the municipal manager, councillors or any council official for private interest, to report such cases to law-enforcement agencies.

 

Date:07 November 2015

By: Anton van Zyl

Anton van Zyl has been with the Zoutpansberger and Limpopo Mirror since 1990. He graduated from the Rand Afrikaans University (now University of Johannesburg) and obtained a BA Communications degree. He is a founder member of the Association of Independent Publishers.

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