The head of Legal in the eThekwini Municipality has defended the City’s “inability” to recover municipal funds when they have been spent irregularly, saying this was legally impossible.
Malusi Mhlongo said it was impossible to recover money where the municipality has not suffered damage.
He spoke on the issue recently following an engagement with the staff members from the office of the auditor-general.
The AG staff had engaged the municipality on some of its concerns that included the lack of consequence management for staff that have been found in the wrong and failure to pursue recoveries where monies of the municipality had been “lost” in one form or another.
The municipal public accounts committee ( Mpac) has revealed that it was processing many reports where recoveries of these funds were impossible because the cases were more than three years old.
The municipality has faced criticism from councillors who complained that failure to pursue recoveries undermined effort to ensure compliance and root out corruption.
Mhlongo said it was important to differentiate between fruitless and wasteful expenditure and irregular expenditure.
Irregular expenditure is when the processes have not been complied with in the procurement or implementation of the service but that service had been provided to satisfaction.
“I just want to say this in front of the AG staff as my department is responsible for making these recoveries. I want to stress that it is impossible to go to court and try to make recoveries when you have not suffered damage, in court you must show damage. Take it from me, a senior lawyer, you can’t recover,” he said.
Mhlongo said in cases where the City has suffered prejudice as a result of fruitless and wasteful expenditure, they had cause to pursue those that are involved.
The Mercury