Senior eThekwini officials are awaiting a report into alleged tender fraud and mismanagement.
|||D-Day is fast approaching for senior eThekwini officials who fear they might be given the boot with the imminent release of a forensic investigation into alleged tender fraud and financial mismanagement in the municipality.
The Manase report is expected to be released next week.
Insiders say that mayor James Nxumalo and newly appointed municipal manager Sibusiso Sithole are already privy to the full report, which is to be officially released at a special full council meeting on Tuesday.
However, unlike most full council sittings, Tuesday’s meeting would not be open to the public.
The report would be released two weeks after Auditor-General Terence Nombembe red-carded eThekwini for contravening supply chain management regulations, which had resulted in irregular expenditure of R1.3 billion, almost three times the R532m recorded in the previous financial year.
According to the auditor-general’s report, contracts amounting to R37m were awarded to companies in which council employees were directors or shareholders. Also, 123 contracts amounting to R84.6m were awarded to 109 companies whose directors, shareholders or members were government officials but not council employees.
The report also revealed that R469m in Section 36 tenders – awarded where the accounting officer deems it necessary to deviate from supply chain management regulations – had been awarded in the 2010/11 financial year during former municipal manager Michael Sutcliffe’s tenure.
Co-operative Governance MEC Nomusa Dube commissioned the forensic investigation into the city’s finances in March last year.
Forensic auditing firm Manase and Associates was tasked to spearhead the investigation. At the time, Dube said the findings could lead to the appointment of an administrator to run eThekwini’s financial affairs if the municipality’s leadership was found wanting.
DA caucus leader Tex Collins said he was not sure what to expect, but a report of this nature should not be kept under wraps. It would be “a great shame” if it was not released to the public, he said.
Fellow councillor Dean Macpherson said the mood at the city hall was tense, and this was evident in that there had been a number of damaging blows to the municipality’s reputation in recent months, including the rocketing Section 36 contracts awarded in the 2010/11 financial year.
“We have also seen that there are a lot of employees who are continuing to do business with the municipality. Since the MEC called for a forensic investigation, one would have thought that the amount linked to irregular expenditure would decrease, but it seems like officials have doubled their efforts to take as much cash as possible before they get the boot,” he said.
Macpherson said fraud and corruption had paralysed the municipality, with many whistle-blowers fearing for their lives.
“Appropriate action should be taken against those officials implicated in the report. It should not be mothballed and swept under the carpet. This could signal a new beginning for the city,” he said.
MF councillor Patrick Pillay said procrastination in releasing the report had held ratepayers and the council in suspense.
“This will bring finality to the speculation over fraud and corruption in the municipality. This is an opportunity for Nxumalo and Sithole to grab the bull by its horns in ensuring clean governance in the city, and for the culprits fingered in the report to be taken to task,” he said.