The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Johannesburg has called for urgent full lifestyle audits of all City of Johannesburg (CoJ) officials following findings by the Special Investigation Unit (SIU).
The SIU has uncovered collusion between CoJ supply chain officials, politicians, and service providers, raising concerns about corruption across municipal departments.
Briefing to Scopa by SIU
The details emerged when parliament’s standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) was briefed by SIU CEO advocate Andy Mothibi last Wednesday regarding the SIU’s investigation into claims of irregular tender awarding and procurement procedures in the Johannesburg metro.
Among other things, Mothibi discovered collusion among bid committee members, service providers, and supply chain management officials. This according to some high-level observations from the investigation. Products that were supplied did not meet specifications, and prices for goods and services were excessive.
Series of factors to blame
Weak regulatory and compliance monitoring, insufficient skills and capacity, inadequate oversight from the executive authority, conflict of interest, and insufficient and/or gaps in the systems and processes were among the other observations. There was a lack of segregation of duties, poor project and contract management, leadership instability, and poor accountability and lack of consequence management.
The SIU’s investigation examined fire station repairs and maintenance, closed-circuit television equipment and related services from SOS Protecsure, office space and furnishings for the integrated operations centre, the purchase of motorcycle uniforms for the Joburg Metro Police Department (JMPD), and the acquisition of vehicles and vehicle maintenance services from Fire Raiders.
The SIU determined that the Fire Raiders’ appointment through a tender process for the acquisition of 29 fire engines worth millions of rands was irregular.
Duplicate invoices
According to Mothibi, the entire cost of installing CCTV at Johannesburg’s Emergency Management Services and JMPD was R10, 632 030.20. The investigation revealed that service providers submitted duplicate invoices to the metro. And all these invoices were paid.
Mothibi stated that a total of R599 236.46 in duplicate invoices must be claimed from SP [service provider]. The JMPD motorcycle uniform tender and the integrated operations centre contract were both found to be unfavourable.
CoGTA
Belinda Kayser-Ehceozonjoku, DA Johannesburg caucus leader, said they have sent a letter to the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA), National Treasury, and the Auditor General, to look into possible breaches of the Municipal Finance Management Act and the Municipal Systems Act.
This comes as the DA insists that Johannesburg is facing a governance crisis. It’s citing that the city keeps losing court cases and being hit with punitive cost orders. But they still do not want to reveal how much money has been spent on them.
R236m water tanker tender
“Last week the DA reported a dodgy R236-million water tanker tender to National Treasury for investigation. And in the past week, public representatives were blocked from conducting oversight at places like the Johannesburg Art Gallery. They …were blocked by members of the executive.
“All of these incidents show the length that officials and the current administration will go to. This in order to obstruct oversight and avoid accountability,” said Kayser-Ehceozonjoku.
She said the DA was adamant at holding those responsible for the city’s failure accountable. Even if it meant taking the legal route.
She also noted that the municipality had an unqualified audit outcome for the 2022/2023 financial year.
ActionSA supports the move
Khomotjo Mashala, ActionSA Johannesburg caucus spokesperson, supported the move. She said they are fully backing up the idea of carrying out lifestyle audits.
“We will be the first political party in council to first undergo the process. Political leaders can never win the fight against corruption if they refuse to open their own books and prove they are clean.
“As a party that believes in ethical leadership, we are not only talking about ethical leadership. We are ready to show it through our actions,” said Mashala.
