Pretoria -
Auditor-General Thembekile Makwetu has identified various contraventions of contract management and procurement in the capital.
This was revealed in the City of Tshwane’s audit report for the 2013/14 financial year, tabled before the council at its first meeting of the year on Thursday.
While the city’s finances were in good order and the metro financially sustainable, the report noted the city had contravened requirements of the Supply Chain Management and Municipal Finance Management Act in awarding tenders.
In terms of the report, the city authorised the procurement of goods and services with a transaction value of more than R200 000 without inviting competitive bids.
It stated that deviations from regulations were approved by the accounting officer even though it wasn’t impractical to invite competitive bids.
The report also pointed to construction contracts awarded to contractors who did not qualify and fingered the municipality for awarding contracts to providers who worked for other state institutions.
Also, p
eople in the service of the council who had a private or business interest in contracts awarded by the municipality failed to disclose it, as required. Other contracts were awarded to people in service of the municipality whose close family members had undisclosed private and business interests.
Members of council were given an opportunity to direct questions to the auditor-general which would be attended to in due course.
The report will be made available to members of the public.
Overall, the auditor-general gave the city a fifth consecutive unqualified audit with findings, representing financial records and statements that were fairly and appropriately presented.
After the report of the financial year, ending June 2013, corrective measures were put in place that included setting up an Operation Clean Audit team headed by Ramokgopa.
The report indicated that this had positive results, as some of the problems raised previously were not reflected in the latest audit.
However, it stated that internal controls implemented by the accounting officer were not effective to ensure the municipality maintained an adequate asset register.
It was also found that money owed by the municipality was not always paid within 30 days of receiving an invoice or statement.
Effective steps had not been taken to fully prevent and detect irregular and unauthorised expenditure – which was in excess of the limits provided for in the approved budget.
According to the auditor-general, the city’s unauthorised expenditure for 2013/14 doubled from R600 million in the last year to R1.2 billion.
Irregular expenditure increased from R295m to R451m.
Material losses of about R819m - up from a previous R622m - were incurred as a result of electricity distribution losses.
This represented 14.25 percent of total electricity available for sale.
The total technical losses of electricity amounted to R402m.
A loss of R416m was due to theft, tampering and faulty meters.
- The Press Ombudsman has dismissed a complaint by the City of Tshwane around an article which appeared in the Pretoria News in November last year regarding a tender for take-away food for municipal staff working overtime.
Pretoria News