The eThekwini municipality is sitting on a damning forensic report that fingers some of the city’s top officials for alleged financial irregularities.
The report, which follows an investigation by Durban accounting and forensic investigations firm, Ngubane and Co, calls for disciplinary action and investigation into the city’s financial affairs.
The report has not been tabled or given to all executive committee members but was discussed at a closed committee meeting this week. Municipal manager Mike Sutcliffe and city treasurer Krish Kumar were asked to leave that meeting, although the reasons are unknown at this stage.
On Thursday eThekwini mayor Obed Mlaba said he was not prepared to divulge any of the report’s details.
Questioned on who the report fingered and what it said about Sutcliffe, Mlaba said: “Whether the city manager is in trouble or not, I don’t know at this stage.”
Mlaba said no other information would be coming from him as the municipality’s financial issues were under investigation and he would not respond to rumours or allegations by the opposition.
“We are a committee (exco), we act as a collective, even as different parties.”
This comes amid reports of tensions between Mlaba and Sutcliffe, with the mayor allegedly feeling that he had been isolated by senior officials on mayoral decisions.
These tensions, it is alleged, date back to the days of the late ANC regional chairman, John Mchunu, who was apparently the only one briefed and consulted by Sutcliffe on major decisions affecting the city.
Earlier this week, Desmond Msomi, the managing director of Ngubane and Co, confirmed the existence of the report, but said he could not divulge anything about the investigation as the firm had been commissioned by the municipality’s internal audit unit and was bound by confidentiality rules.
DA councillor Tex Collins on Thursday said he did not have a copy of the report, but “information at hand suggests that several highly placed individuals within the administration should in fact be suspended pending the outcome of further forensic investigations”.
Apart from the Ngubane report and the 2009/10 audit report, which has not yet been made public, Mlaba this week called for another full-scale investigation into the city’s money matters.
In his 2009/10 audit report, auditor-general Terence Nombembe highlighted the city’s R532 million in irregular expenditure as well as its lack of internal controls and supply chain management contraventions.
That report also underlined 25 cases of alleged procurement fraud and irregularities, as well as the delivery of municipal housing which was under investigation.
In his State of the Nation address on Thursday night, President Jacob Zuma said the government had directed the Special Investigating Unit to probe alleged maladministration or corruption in various government departments, municipalities and institutions.
The unit’s Willie Hofmeyr on Thursday night confirmed that the agency was investigating housing irregularities in the municipality.
Minority Front councillor Patrick Pillay said: “The writing is on the wall, the days of irregular and wasteful expenditure are over. The flouting of tender regulations and usage of section 36 freely and without due consideration to the city and its ratepayers will soon be over.”
Sutcliffe and Kumar could not be reached for comment on Thursday night. - The Mercury