The board of troubled state-owned Amatola Water has racked up R4-million in claims after just seven months in office as an interim authority.
Pam Yako, the interim chairperson of the bulk water supply entity, allegedly scored just over R1-million between April and October 2022.
This is despite persistent problems plaguing water and sanitation supply in the predominantly rural areas of the Eastern Cape.
In 2014, Yako, former municipality administrator in Grahamstown’s struggling Makana local municipality, was fingered by parliament for earning R27 000 a day salary.
Despite this, she was appointed as the head of Amatola interim board at the end of March 2022 amid much fanfare by Water and Sanitation Minister Senzo Mchunu.
It is not clear why the board initially appointed to serve five months has continued for a year.
Yako’s biggest claim was R240 000 in July 2022, according to records.
She had not claimed anything less than R50 000 in the seven-month period while her board colleagues never claimed anything close to R200 000, according to figures this newspaper has seen.
Her lowest claim was recorded in October at R70 000 with one of the board members never receiving a cent from Amatola coffers for four out of seven months.
Amatola has justified the board’s earnings, citing an “expanded mandate” that Mchunu gave the members when they were temporarily appointed to the entity.
Spokesperson Nosisa Sogayise, responding to questions sent to Yako, said among other tasks given to the board that resulted in their exorbitant claims was their participation in stopping the so-called Day Zero from visiting Nelson Mandela Bay.
“The board is the highest strategic authority in Amatola Water that gets reimbursement hourly,” said Sogayise.
“Given the situation of Amatola Water and the state of the entity at the time of the appointment, the board had a primary responsibility of stabilising the entity including governance failures, stakeholder concerns with regard to service delivery, and overall organisational poor performance.”
In addition, said Sogayise, on June 3 2022 the Amatola Water board was given an additional mandate to lead the minister’s intervention in Nelson Mandela Bay in order to avoid Day Zero.
“And this intervention required board members led by the chairperson to be actively involved in this project over and above the internal Amatola Water responsibilities,” said Sogayise.
About Yako earning more than a quarter of the total claims racked up by the rest of the board members, Amatola said all was due to her work.
“Amatola Water has a watertight remuneration process wherein it is understandable that the national Department of Water and Sanitation prescribes board remuneration in terms of the contract.
“Every remuneration is aligned properly and tallies with the work that has been executed,” said the entity.
In its 2022 annual report, Amatola admits that board fees are 18.46% more than the budgeted funds.
However, the entity blames this on “the instruction by the Department of Water and Sanitation to intervene in the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality drought issue”.
For this “intervention”, Yako pocketed R131 000, according to records.
The Amatola financials further reveal that “more meetings were held than anticipated” because the interim board was being inducted and had to familiarise itself with matters facing the institution.
The water entity has been rocked by “instability and governance challenges” for several years with one board after another struggling to make a difference.
Yako’s board claims that it has recorded few achievements because it has “fewer members than a typical full board”.
“This puts increased strain as required performance standards remain that of a full board.”
Among others, the board is under attack for failing to appoint a permanent CEO since coming into office.
The Department of Water and Sanitation had not responded to questions at the time of going to print.
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