Negligent state officials must pay back the money

Sharika Regchand

PIETERMARITZBURG: Two KwaZulu-Natal government officials whose municipality lost out on more than R253 000 because they failed to do their jobs properly have been ordered to pay back the money.

Legal experts said it was a rare case and should serve as a warning to all government employees and officials that if they did not pull up their socks, they could be at the receiving end of judicial action.

The Pietermaritzburg High Court granted an order recently that Flora Madadasa and Rene Gouws, who were municipal employees in Kokstad, were liable to pay the money to the Harry Gwala District Municipality.

Madadasa was employed as a cashier and filing clerk at the district’s office in the town, while Gouws was her boss.

Madadasa’s duty was to accept money from the public, issue receipts, capture amounts received and look after money until it had been deposited. She also had to answer phone calls and attend to billing-related enquiries.

Gouws was a sub-accountant and supervisor. Her duties included overseeing Madadasa, balancing the municipality’s books daily, cashing up, checking that the bank deposit book entries were made by Madadasa, counting the money received and handing over money to a security company to bank.

The municipality’s procedure was that all the money had to be kept in the strong-room overnight. The next day, Madadasa had to cash up and complete the municipality’s bank deposit book.

Gouws then had to check the deposit book entries against the receipts issued and entries made into the municipality’s accounting system by Madadasa.

Gouws had to count the money and complete the receipt book issued by the security company, which took the money to the bank. All money received had to be banked on the day after receipt.

The two women owed the municipality a duty of care, said the claim. From November 20, 2013 to December 2, 2013 the money was stolen or misappropriated by an unknown party.

It said the court should find that Madadasa either used the money for her own benefit or failed to make sure it was properly safeguarded and accounted for.

Gouws did not check the deposit book entries against the receipts, failed to count the money daily, failed to hand it to the security company daily and failed to report the loss of money.

Neither woman defended the claim. Madadasa decided to resign from the municipality, while Gouws was dismissed.

A legal expert said the ruling sent out a warning to state employees that such losses of revenue should not be seen as coming from a massive pool of money kept in the Treasury.

The fact that the women did not defend the action told a lot.

“They are either confessing or find it too embarrassing to contest the claim. It is a rare case. It is high time we hold individuals liable for gross negligence, fraud or theft.”

He added that government departments should not take a benign approach to incidents such as these.

“We need a more rigorous approach by government departments and supervisors to hold people accountable.”

Meanwhile, opposition parties in the eThekwini Municipality have regularly criticised the city for not taking decisive action against errant officials.

In May, a report before the Municipal Public Accounts Committee showed how city officials and those from other government departments routinely disregarded proper financial and tender process, and how many of them were repeat offenders.

The report – which the Cape Times’s sister paper The Mercury is in possession of, titled “Conflict of interest” – showed that seven municipal employees, two of whom were repeat offenders, benefited from about R400 000 in contracts (combined) awarded by the city during the 2013/14 financial year.

About 20 employees benefited from R2.6 million in contracts in the previous financial year (2012/13) – of these, 10 were repeat offenders.

A total of 84 employees – seven repeat offenders – in other state entities secured contracts for R33.5m (during 2013/14) from eThekwini, up from R8.1m in the previous financial year, the report said.

Reacting to the report at the time, Zwakele Mncwango, the DA caucus leader, said: “No one is serious about rooting out corruption in this city. You get away with just a slap on the wrist – transgressors learn nothing from a slap on the wrist. We need to mete out severe punishments.”

The IFP’s Mdu Nkosi accused the provincial Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs of not acting on the findings of the Manase and Ngubane investigation reports.

“These reports stated that municipal and provincial and national government employees benefited from eThekwini contracts. We’ve never seen anyone disciplined… Ratepayers’ money was wasted on the commission of the investigations,” he said.