Pretoria - The R15 million presented to the municipal public accounts portfolio as having been spent on takeaway food was a three-year budget amount and not a month’s expenditure, the City of Tshwane has said.
Municipal spokesman Selby Bokaba said the actual expenditure for takeaways between August last year to date is a little over R4m.
The three-year tender valued at R15m was effective from last August and will run out in July 2016.
Last Friday, portfolio committee members were presented with a report listing five companies that had been awarded the contract for supplying, delivering and off-loading standby food parcels to the amount of R15m.
Portfolio committee members Bronwynn Engelbrecht (of the DA) and Katlego Mathebe (of Cope) were shocked by the amount spent on takeaways.
They asked questions and expected answers and full disclosures when they reconvene early next year.
Bokaba said food parcels were only issued if an employee on “standby” was called out to perform duties for a period longer than four hours continuously, and if the employee had missed a meal during that time. The reason for this was because the employee could not expect to take time off to buy food while attending to a power failure, he explained.
“The food parcel is a ration pack with non-perishable products to ensure a long shelf life since it is purchased in bulk and only drawn from the store if and when required.
“The packs are only issued for unplanned overtime - power failures and other emergency overtime - and only if a meal is missed,” Bokaba said.
Providing food parcels to energy and electricity technicians was part of council policy arising from negotiations between the employer and labour unions.
An employee who is on “standby” is expected to be reachable at any given time and be within a 30km radius from the workplace, Bokaba added.
Pretoria News