By Michael Bagraim
Your Monday edition “Pay back the money, court orders Nelson Mandela Bay ex-managers” refers.
It is wonderful to hear how former senior managers at Nelson Mandela Bay municipality will have to pay back the more than seven million rand of irregular expenditure. Hopefully we will see more of this in the future and hopefully individuals will take into account that if they are going to wastefully spend money and resources then they might be personally responsible.
As we all know, expenditure is very easy if it doesn’t come from your own pocket. If you know that you are going to have to possibly pay it yourself then all of a sudden people are more careful and don’t wastefully spend the money. The reality is that this is occurring in every single municipality that failed their audit. What is interesting is that the only municipalities who seem to have passed their audit are those in the Western Province.
They fully understand that if they get caught with regard to irregular expenditure they will be paying personally and will lose their jobs. We need to hold people accountable. The country is not wealthy and we need to stop the bleeding now.
Cape Times