Durban -
As a report on the irregular buying of eThekwini vehicles gathers dust in the city hall, the municipality is preparing to splurge more than R100 million to bolster its fleet.
The city says in its 2016/17 draft budget that it intends to buy trucks, vans and other vehicles at a cost of about R120 million over three years.
The document does not specify exactly how many vehicles are needed and will be bought.
About R22.2 million will be spent in the financial year starting in July, R70.1 million in the 2017/18 financial year and about R27 million in the third year.
Shocking allegations of “fiscal dumping” by city officials, who had spent unused money from their budgets unnecessarily buying vehicles, surfaced in 2014. More than 150 new and unused cars were abandoned and gathering dust at a staging yard.
Mayor James Nxumalo in August that year ordered an investigation as a “matter of urgency” into the apparent wasteful expenditure, but almost two years later it is still unclear what became of the vehicles.
This was after an initial investigation by the city’s internal audit on six of its 28 depots revealed potential acts of maladministration as well as fruitless and wasteful expenditure.
External auditors and investigators were roped in to do further probes at all 28 depots, but the findings of who was responsible have never been revealed. The Mercury reported at the time that the audit committee had discovered that 87 new vehicles had been standing unused for more than a year. A further 79, with a book value of nearly R8 million, had been held, awaiting disposal, since 2012.
Last week, opposition parties in the city demanded answers on why the city was buying the vehicles when the probe was incomplete. The municipality’s spokesman, Thulani Mbatha, said in terms of its vehicle replacement programme, “each category of vehicle has a projected expected life cycle, so a water tanker has a 10-year projected life cycle”.
He said the annual budget allocation addressed the fleet replacement programme.
“The replacement value of the fleet is about R2.9 billion and the R120 million is less than 5% of the total replacement value, which is very reasonable.”
Mbatha refused to comment on the investigation.
“These matters are confidential between employer and employee,” he said.
According to city statistics, the municipality has 5 801 trucks and light vehicles plus 854 plants (diggers, dumpers etc) and trailers. The average age of a city light vehicle is seven years.
Lambasted
The fleet also appears to be operating optimally with the documents saying “vehicle availability” is 93%.
The IFP, NFP and DA all lambasted the city for lacking “transparency”.
Mdu Nkosi of the IFP said he planned to submit a section 27 question at the next council meeting for city manager Sbu Sithole to “clarify”.
“What does it mean for the city to want to buy new vehicles when we are still awaiting the outcome of a probe into the same matter? My assessment of the situation is that there are officials that, if they are not colluding with politicians, are enriching themselves at the expense of ratepayers,” he said.
His comments were echoed by Bongiwe Mtshali of the NFP, who said it was clear the municipality was “dedicated” to wasting ratepayers’ money.
“This is ratepayers’ money being abused; they are the victims in all of this. This is blatant corruption. You can’t unnecessarily buy something you clearly do not need,” she said.
The DA’s Heinz De Boer acknowledged that new vehicles were desperately needed in some departments.
“As the executive committee we’ve had feedback on this issue, but it was done in committee (behind closed doors). Although I can’t go into details, the investigation is quite horrifying. But it took too long, far too long. We can’t let service delivery be hampered by an investigation,” he said.
@Sihle_MG
The Mercury