Soon after it emerged on social media last week that top
management of the City of Cape Town is to receive a 17% salary increase later
this year, pushing their packages into the R3m and R4m mark, the City’s Mayco
member for finance, Johan van der Merwe, issued a press release on behalf of
the City of Cape Town stating that this information was not correct.
A table of comparative salaries was drawn up by the action
group STOP COCT and circulated via their Facebook group on social media.
“In this table we compared the 2017/18 salaries, which do
not appear in the 2018/19 draft budget, with the 2018/19 salaries as proposed
in the current draft budget. On calculation it indicated a 17% increase in some
instances and was probably the source of information for the City’s media
release and subsequent apology,” says Sandra Dickson, founder of website and
Facebook group STOP COCT – Dear Cape Town.
Van der Merwe claims the figure displayed was a “typo” in an
addendum to the draft budget and should read 7.1%.
“The City of Cape Town notes the reports of senior
management increases for the 2018/19 financial year of 17% and upwards.
“This is incorrect. The City has budgeted for an increase of
7.1% for the 2018/19 financial year.
Regrettably, an error crept into an external annexure table
in the City’s tabled (draft) budget.
“The typo caused the figure to read 17% and not 7.1%. The
City sincerely apologises for this error. Such errors really are
uncharacteristic of our budgets. This has not impacted on the budget numbers
and amounts in any way. The figure was only stated in one particular table,
which serves as an annexure to the budgeted amounts-related information. This
reporting error will be corrected when the final budget is adopted in May
2018,” Van der Merwe states in the press release dated 23 April.
But in a search through all 1804 pages of the 2018/19 draft
budget by members of STOP COCT – Dear
Cape Town, no trace of this 17% “typo” referred to by Van der Merwe could be
found.
“We could not find this ‘typo’ he refers to. Therefore we
can only assume that he is responding to the table with comparative salaries as
published by us on our Facebook group. (See below.)
“Questions now arise as to why the architects of this budget
issued an apology for figures not present in the budget.”
When TygerBurger asked Van der Merwe to clarify this issue,
the “typo” he alluded to in his statement last week has apparently now morphed
into an error in factor application.
Responding to TygerBurger’s media enquiry on Monday morning,
he said: “When the table was populated for purposes of publication with the
tabled budget, a factor of 17% was applied instead of a factor of 7.1%. This
was human error.”
He referred to Table SA23 on page 110 of Annexure A of the
draft budget.
Dickson notes that this Annexure A is an integral part of
the budget and not an “external annexure table” of the budget, as was indicated
by Van der Merwe in his previous media statement.
But Van der Merwe continued to stress that this error of application
did not impact on the actual budget numbers and amounts in any way.
“It was only the particular table, calculated independently
of the budget, which reflects this error. This reporting error will be
corrected at the occasion of final budget adoption in May 2018.”
However, upon further calculation, Dickson disagrees.
“The total amount used by the City in this Table 53 Van der
Merwe refers to, was used elsewhere in the budget to calculate the total amount
for salaries and staff cost,” she says.
“This is only one error that was picked up by mere
coincidence, just two weeks before public participation closes. How many other
errors could be hiding in the 1800-page budget that was not picked up?” she
asks.
“Due to this error, STOP COCT has sent a letter to the City
requesting a complete withdrawal of the draft budget in its current form, as it
is unacceptable to expect the public to peruse a document which could contain
an unknown number of errors,” says Dickson.
In this letter, Dickson states that they reject the contents
of the draft budget.
“As per Councillor van der Merwe’s media statement on 22
April 2018, there are ‘typos’ in the draft budget which ‘will be corrected when
the final budget is adopted in May 2018’.
“During our audit, it was evident that these so-called
‘typos’ have indeed pulled through to the budget summary, which impacts on the
complete budget, and commenting on incorrect figures will be fruitless. We can
therefore not accept a flawed submission in the form of the 2018/19 draft
budget,” she states.
“We humbly request that the draft budget be urgently
corrected from all anomalies and typos as referred to, but not limited to, and
resubmitted to the public for comment within a reasonable time.”
To date the City has received some 25 000 emails from the
public to make their voices heard over the massive increases in the City’s
tariffs.
Of these 24 900 emails, some 22 000 were received via the
STOP COCT – Dear Cape Town action group website portal.
“It is important to note this is not a petition but the
first step in an essential legal process. And here’s the best bit: each comment
must, by law, be acknowledged and considered by the City. Had this been a
petition, they would treat it as a single comment,” says Dickson.
“Only four days remain before the period of public
participation ends on 5 May,” says Dickson.
To make your voice heard, visit:
https://www.dearcapetown.co.za/coct-budget/
