The EFF the eThekwini Municipality wants the terms of reference of the Municipal Public Accounts Committee (MPAC) amended to ensure the committee has the capacity to hold errant officials accountable.
Committee chair and EFF councillor Thami Xuma said the party had drafted a motion that called for changes to the committee.
It plans to submit the motion to the office of speaker Thabani Nyawose. The motion, which is in a draft phase, is being scrutinised by the party’s legal experts to determine if it’s possible to amend the terms of reference of the committee.
The motion reads: “The EFF Leadership in eThekwini believes that the institutional mechanisms of MPAC as a structure of accountability remains inherently weakened and therefore recommends that the Terms of Reference and mandate be reviewed to strengthen the committee.”
Asked about the amendments the party wanted to make, Xuma said: “We want to be able to go to the council and say, despite the recommendations of the financial misconduct board, we as MPAC recommend that this particular action be taken against those implicated.
“At the moment we are only able to support the recommendation that has been made to us, and that is the key point that we want to change.
“If an employee in the council has been accused of wrongdoing, the Deputy City Manager in charge of that cluster is responsible for taking the action against that employee, which means if they are not interested, no action is taken or they can protect that employee.
“We want to be able to send our own recommendation directly to the council to say that this particular employee has been accused of wrongdoing and are recommending that the employee be suspended while the investigation into the allegations against them is pending.
We want to be able to go to the council directly with such recommendations,” he said.
He said the City’s Integrity and Investigations Unit conducted investigations into financial misconduct and those reported were forwarded to the Financial Misconduct Disciplinary Board.
“Very often the board will come back to us with a finding that this particular case has reached prescription and even if we were to to take the matter to court we would not succeed, in such a case we as MPAC finds ourselves stuck with that recommendation.”
DA councillor Shontel de Boer said MPAC played an oversight role.
“We don't have powers to ensure disciplinary action. We do wish that we had more powers, we do feel helpless at times because of what comes before us and wish we could do more,” she said.
However she said the proposed change was likely to be almost impossible as that could require a change to the Municipal Finance Management Act.
She added the DA believed it would be improper of MPAC to get involved in the disciplinary processes of staff.
ActionSA councillor and MPAC member Alan Beesley said they would support any motion that made MPAC more effective and enabled the committee to fulfil its mandate.
“MPAC in the most part, is an ineffective committee and not fulfilling its primary role.
“Many cases of wrongdoing are brought to the committee several years after the event and as such the Financial Misconduct Disciplinary Board will not act on these cases due to the time lapse.”
The Mercury