Today, the City of Johannesburg Council resolved to re-instate the Terms of Reference (TOR) for the Disciplinary Board during a meeting held on the 23 March 2023 and to rescind all resolutions taken at a Council meeting of 25/27 May 2022.
This means that the City’s Disciplinary Board is being re-established to ensure that it is set up in accordance with the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA) and the Municipal Regulations on Financial Misconduct Procedures and Criminal Proceedings.
In August 2021, Council had approved by way of a resolution the establishment of the Disciplinary Board and its membership as per the Regulations.
Before the Disciplinary Board became fully operational, and upon assumption of office in November 2021, the former Executive Mayor, Councillor Mpho Phalatse and the former Member of the Mayoral Committee for Corporate and Shared Services Councillor Leah Knot, expressed the view that the Disciplinary Board was duplicating the work of the Group Forensic Investigation Services (GFIS) Department.
The Offices of the former Mayor Phalatse and former MMC Knott then embarked on a process to revise the Terms of Reference of the Disciplinary Board, change membership of the Board, as well as the name from Disciplinary Board to Financial Misconduct Board.
In spite of advice from National Treasury, former Mayor Phalatse and former MMC Knott had deviated from these Regulations which in turn could be a contravention in terms of the MFMA Section 175(3).
These amendments were then approved through a report which served at Council meeting of 25/27 May 2022.
The City’s Group Governance Department was then tasked to implement the Council resolution and establish the new body by placing an advert in January 2023 to appoint new external members to constitute the board.
“These actions significantly derailed the work of the Disciplinary Board as it did not become fully operational as required in terms of the MFMA Regulations on Financial Misconduct. As a result, there were a number of incidents of financial misconduct that could not be investigated,” said Councillor Loyiso Masuku, the Member of the Mayoral Committee for Group Corporate and Shared Services.
What is of great concern to the City is that the Auditor General SA has raised this legislative non-compliance as a repeat finding for the 2021/22 year-end audit.
Similarly, the City’s oversight structures, such as MPAC, have raised similar concerns attributing the slow pace of consequence management to the Disciplinary Board not being operational.
National Treasury has also issued a letter of non-compliance regarding MFMA. The City is required to be compliant by 31 May 2023.
“The Government of Local Unity is confident that the re-established Disciplinary Board (once all members have been appointed) will move with speed to deal with the backlog of matters that fall within the authority of the Board,” concludes Councillor Masuku.
ENDS
Issued by the City of Johannesburg
For more information:
Nthatisi Modingoane
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nthatisem@joburg.org.za
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24/03/2023
