Dismay over late accounts
2009-08-13
MUNICIPAL accounts are two weeks late - possibly because of the victimisation of two key Drakenstein municipal employees who took sick leave after being unexpectedly deployed to outlying offices. Many questions are being asked about the sudden redeployment of two respected employers of Drakenstein municipality’s income section, with years of experience, to Wellington and Saron respectively, after rumours that they had opposed the recent hike in municipal property tax. The DA is taking the Municipality to court over the property tax increases amounting to about 23%, which they have labelled excessive. André Abrahams, section manager for income, and Deon Heyns, a specialist in the income section, received notice on 30 June that they had been redeployed. Both took sick leave for a month and sought psychiatric counselling to recover from the shock of what appeared to be punitive action, and have registered a labour dispute with their employers. The fact that the July municipal accounts to taxpayers were late, has been blamed on this redeployment action, as both men continued to work from home in an effort to get the new bills out in time, but were hampered by technological problems. Payments which normally closed on 7 August in Paarl, have been postponed to 17 August because accounts only went out after the end of July instead of in the middle of the month. In reaction, the Municipality said that this was not the first time that the billing run had been late at the start of the financial year. “The July 2009 accounts were issued later than the normal date due to technical problems with our financial system. “We also encountered a problem with the layout of the monthly account statement and we could not take the CD for the printing of accounts to the Service Provider, due to the strike action that took place for five days. “Account holders who have not received the monthly account should come in or phone in order to make the necessary payments.” Municipal spokesperson May Carolissen denied that the two officials had been deployed to other work stations for any other reason, but to “improve service delivery in outlying areas of Drakenstein”. “This was purely a management decision. Revenue recovery from Wellington, Saron and Gouda is the reason for their temporary redeployment. Due to their high level of expertise for revenue enhancement which is expected from these new areas. Another reason is the monitoring and implementation of a turn- around strategy which only senior personnel could perform.” She would not comment on press reports that the officials may have been punished for leaking information to the DA. * After receiving numerous enquiries and complaints from consumers regarding their property valuations, the municipality last week sent letters to ratepayers with their accounts regarding the general valuation of their taxable properties. It is part of an initiative from the municipality to provide explanations regarding the valuation that was performed during 2008. It does not refer to objections towards the property valuation or rate in general, said a spokesperson of the municipality.
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