A high-ranking official at Free State municipality has been charged with fraud for allegedly approving a car allowance for junior staff.
Mangaliso Hlongwane, an employee at the Nketoana municipality, said the request for this illegal approval came from the chief financial officer, Jabu Makubu.
The senior official is said to have ignored the expenditure manager’s advice against the approval.
Hlongwane believed this was a clear misuse of public funds and reported it to the Reitz police station, leading to a case of fraud and financial misconduct.
Fraud case opened
Mmako Mophiring, a spokesperson for the Free State police, confirmed that a fraud case has been opened and passed to the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation.
Last month, a similar case was opened against the municipality’s mayor for allegedly costing the municipality R100 000 on a hired car, while the distance travelled did not match the amount spent.
In an affidavit, Hlongwane stated that he discovered the alleged fraud during initial investigations.
He found that a car allowance had been wrongly approved for Duduzile Tshabalala, an employee in the finance department.
He noted that the travel policy specifies that only employees on post levels one, two, and three qualify for this allowance, while Tshabalala is at post level four, making her unqualified for the R8 554.46 allowance.
Requirement to keep detailed logbook
“Section 4 of the policy states that some employees who are not in these post levels may be granted the allowance provided that the job requires extensive travelling.
“Furthermore, Section 4.6 of the policy states that employees receiving this car allowance will keep a detailed logbook.
“It is to my knowledge that the said employee, Ms Duduzile Tshabalala, does not keep a detailed logbook.
“Simply because her job does not require extensive travelling as she is office-based. This travel allowance was deliberately approved and paid by the accounting officer,” said Hlongwane.
He said this is a case of fraud and a violation of the municipality’s travel allowance policy, and he described it as wasteful spending under the Municipal Finance Management Act.
Hlongwane urged the police to investigate further, believing that the municipality was misusing funds instead of focussing on service delivery.
