Sol Plaatje officials sent for municipal finance management training

SOL PLAATJE executive mayor Martha Bartlett encouraged the 40 officials enrolled in a one-year municipal finance management certificate programme to play their part in improving clean governance at the municipality.

She expressed her gratitude to the Local Government Sector Education and Training Authority (LGSETA) for allocating grant funding of R880,000 to make the training possible.

“The training will develop their leadership, financial, and management skills, which are essential for their future careers in local government. We can assure the LGSETA that we will make you proud of this investment in the most important asset of the organisation – our employees,” said Bartlett.

She urged the trainees to blow the whistle on corruption and financial misconduct.

“Do not allow or fall prey to unlawful instructions to abuse the municipal resources and be told a ‘mandate’ has been given. Guard against the embezzlement of financial resources meant for service delivery. Suppress at all costs the urge to exploit them for a good life of conspicuous consumption.” 

She pointed out that financial misconduct was not a “foreign concept”. 

“The Asset Forfeiture Unit is no stranger to the Sol Plaatje Local Municipality, as we do have a matter currently under investigation. Let us commit to being upright in our conduct and avoid having our characters entangled in the corruption and rumour mill for financial misconduct matters before the court of law,” Bartlett said.