Councillors paid double

A glitch in the payroll system of the cash-strapped Ngqushwa municipality resulted in hundreds of municipal officials and councillors being paid double their salaries last month.

Christmas came early for these officials and politicians when an error in the system resulted in everyone on the municipality’s payroll, except a few banking with First National Bank, getting double pay on March 24.

Now municipal administration bosses are frantically trying to recoup the funds, but some officials and politicians are said to be refusing to pay back the money to municipal coffers.

This was confirmed yesterday by municipal spokeswoman Ncumisa Cakwe, who however refused to give much detail on the matter.

“Yes salaries were paid double to some employees and councillors last month due to a technical glitch on our online banking system,” said Cakwe.

“However this is still an internal matter. The administration will be able to give details on the matter after this is processed through the executive committee and ultimately council.”

Council speaker Zukisa Jowela said soon after the error was spotted, the municipality sent text messages warning staff not to use the extra cash as it would be automatically deducted.

Jowela said councillors and officials were informed the money would be deducted and returned to council coffers within five days of the double payment being made.

However, he said yesterday such deductions had not yet been effected, more than 20 days after the error occurred, and that no explanatory report on the matter had been presented in council.

He said an estimated 78% of those on the council payroll, those who did not bank with FNB, received double pay.

Jowela could not provide a monetary figure for the loss, saying “administration is best suited to respond to that”.

According to him, a motion was tabled at their previous council meeting asking the municipal administrators to provide council with a report on the matter. The report was expected to be tabled later this month. “We were informed that this was due to a technical error from the side of management. The money was supposed to have been deducted within five days after the incident, but to date it still has not.

“Even though we know that some of our 25 councillors might have utilised the money already, we know that we did not work for it and thus we did not deserve it.

“By any means, this money must be returned to municipal coffers as this might lead to a huge financial crisis in the municipality, a crisis without any justification.”

South African Municipal Workers’ Union chairman at the municipality, Vukile Thwani, and secretary Ntombomzi Bangani both could not be reached at the time of writing yesterday.

However, four employees spoken to yesterday on condition of anonymity said a few officials had already paid back some of the money, while others had spent the extra cash and “could not afford to pay it back at once”.

They said it could result in “some conflict” if the municipal bosses decided not to pay them their salaries this month to recoup the overpayment, or if they deducted the entire amount at once.

“They will have to make arrangements with the workforce as to how they are going to recoup such money, bit by bit,” said one employee. — asandan@dispatch.co.za