Eastern Cape councils incur R22.9bn irregular expenditure

Eastern Cape municipalities have incurred a staggering R22.9-billion in irregular expenditure for the 2016-17 financial year.

These figures were revealed by Eastern Cape auditor-general Sithembele Pieters on Wednesday during a media briefing reporting on the performance of the province's municipalities.

Breaking down the figures Pieters said that R13.6-billion of the cumulative irregular                                                                                                expenditure was incurred and disclosed                                                                                                during the year under review.

“Our inability as the province to do proper investigations [on the irregular expenditure] or when investigations are started, we do not finish them to recoup the said amounts,” he said.The biggest offenders are Nelson Mandela Metro, OR Tambo District and the Buffalo City Metro.