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Madonsela slates 'cowboy governance'

PUBLIC protector Thuli Madonsela says "cowboy governance" at municipalities was used to facilitate corruption as political leaders flouted governance rules.

"In a situation like that, the rules are thrown out of the window and we are concerned only about the outcomes we want," Madonsela said.

She was addressing more than 300 members of the Institute of Municipal Finance Officers [IMFO] Risk Indaba at the Lord Charles Hotel in Somerset West.

Mandonsela said this emphasis on delivery above all else meant that ordinary staff understood that the rules should not be respected.

She said the flouting of rules might have started because of pressure to deliver services, but has since morphed into a culture that disrespects rules.

"Often the pressure comes from poor planning. You need to plan upfront. Planning doesn't mean having [only] an integrated development plan. If you don't have proper planning, and you don't have oversight, you'll discover in the 12th month that you haven't started to do something and that's when you start breaking the rules," Madonsela said.

She said billions of rands of state funding had been lost in municipalities, which were over-billed by contractors, but the full extent of the fraud was still unknown.

"We can [only] talk to which areas of government we are picking it up. It is RDP housing, accommodation for state officials, leasing of state buildings. We've also been told that state travelling is the area in which there is over-billing."

She said the Treasury would be best suited to study the full extent of contractors over-billing the state.

Earlier this year the Treasury halted a transfer of funds to the Nala municipality in Free State, and its former chief financial officer was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment for fraud, after diverting municipal funds into his transport business.

Madonsela said she had briefed Parliament, President Jacob Zuma and members of his cabinet on improving the protection for whistle-blowers in the public sector.

Often whistle-blowers were not fired for the act of whistle-blowing but, according to Madonsela, for "late-coming, under-performing or for some or other nebulous issue".

Madonsela, taking questions from some of the officials at the conference, said internal auditors were key in battling corruption and could identify issues before they became problematic.

She said in some instances fraud and corruption could not be blamed for poor service delivery at smaller municipalities, but simply the lack of resources.

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