Council investigates breach of donation rules
Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Friday August 23, 2019 14:28
Guidelines governing donations prohibit receipt of such by individual members. The council dictates that donations should be received through established official channels.
The issue came to light in 2018 after some members in the Committee took a resolution to raise funds for the Independence Day celebrations. The funds raised were reportedly credited into an individual member’s personal bank account. “It is true we have a report that the old committee which handed to the new one last December used a personal account belonging to one of its members to raise funds for independence in 2018,” GCC deputy city clerk, Olebile Mafala told Mmegi.
“Even though our committee development officer had advised the committee to withdraw the said letter about the account, it was late, as some letters had already been delivered. It’s an unfortunate situation that we found ourselves in.”
He added that according to the report, only one company donated P3, 000 into that account.
“As council, we have to find ways that confirm whether P3, 000 was deposited into that account as part of the donation. We will audit the account,” Mafala disclosed.
A member of the committee reportedly solicited donations from businesses, using a letter that had a Council stamp and the members’ personal account details. The deputy town clerk said the letter was not in order, adding that the council always advised committees to seek counsel on some of the resolutions they make.
He explained that the reason why letters have the bye-law stamp is because the bye-law department did not usually question ward development committees whenever they make their resolutions.
“We understand the old committee had divisions and some members were not attending meetings. That is what led to some of these mistakes. At times, division in these committees hinders development in the wards. Certain mistakes could be avoided if people could work together like in this case. For example, others could not use committees account number because of divisions,” he said.