COGTA City probe starts
Provincial investigation team set to scrutinise City of uMhlathuze's affairs.
FRIDAY marks the start of a month-long investigation by the KZN Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) into widespread allegations of maladministration, fraud and corruption at the City of uMhlathuze.
COGTA MEC Nomusa Dube-Ncube has given her investigation team just one month to complete their findings, after which Council will be afforded 21 days to respond.
Led by COGTA Senior Manager: Legal Services Heinz Kuhn, Councillors were briefed on the terms of reference for the investigation during a full Council sitting on Tuesday night.
The team will look into controversial tender awards, particularly where there have been excessive delays as a result of interdicts against the municipality by unsuccessful bidders as well as deviation from supply chain management regulations by officials.
Tenders ‘being held up to allow for the validity period to expire because preferred bidders were not favoured’ will also be investigated by the MEC’s team of experts. This includes tenders relating to rural sanitation provision of 10 000 toilets, equipment and plant hire, water and waste water treatment facilities and provision of electricity.
‘Forty-four contracts awarded between 2004 and 2008 remain incomplete,’ Kuhn told Council. ‘With the exception of eight or nine contracts that might still be on track, the rest did not get off the ground or collapsed. The problem is that these items still show on the books, which will cause audit problems, said Kuhn.
COGTA will further probe the alleged recruitment of all levels of personnel who have ‘no appropriate qualifications and/or experience’ and claims of nepotism.
Other allegations relate to the unauthorised usage of municipal vehicles and subsequent private work conducted.
Cllr Manie Lourens requested that tenders going back to 2011 be investigated, while Cllr R Zikhali said the spend on the 2014 State of the City and gala dinner and Mayoral Golf Day must be added to the investigation.
The MEC’s team agreed that these and any other consequential matters that may arise during the course of the investigation would also be probed.
‘Although the process should have been getting Cogta involved via a Council resolution, the probe is welcomed and Council pledges co-operation,’ said City Speaker Mvuseni Mqayi.
‘These are merely unsubstantiated allegations sent to the MEC for investigation. There is no need to drag out the investigation, which creates its own dynamics,’ said Kuhn.
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