Cape Town - Lobby group STOP COCT has raised questions over the City’s alleged purchase of drones for embattled councillor Nora Grose’s Ward 23, which includes Melkbosstrand and Atlantis.
Grose is embroiled in corruption charges related to Covid-19 Temporary Employer/Employee Relief Scheme funding.
STOP COCT’s Mike Heyns said during the 2018/19 budget the request for drones was slipped in between the tabled budget (draft) and the adopted budget.
“An amount of R120 000 was allocated, but during the January 2019 adjusted budget, the City made an administrative adjustment: project transferred from Safety and Security Support Services. The Capex number CPX.0015234-F1 was moved to CPX.0012865: ’Surveillance drone components - ward 23’. The purchase order was raised under DPO101164,” he said.
Heyns said these capex and purchase order numbers were linked to the tender of 237G/2016/17: “Supply and delivery of analogue two-way radios and repeater equipment” for R3 million.
“We do not know if the drones were required, but according to the purchase order, there was a purchase made out for it, so we can only assume that the drones were bought, and we do not know where they are and why they were bought.
“The problem is that they were not mentioned in the draft budget, which we were supposed to comment on before they put it in place before July 1, and once they approve the budget, all these things come out. Why was this never in the draft budget that there were drones acquired in ward allocations?
“We want to know from the City where are these drones that they are speaking about, whether they were budgeted for, if provisions were made for them, and most importantly, where these drones are. As much as we do not suspect corruption, the City should have been transparent with the people of ward 23,” said Heyns.
However, Grose said one drone was purchased for R170 000 using ward allocation budget. She said it was done on a request for quotation (RFQ) and not the tender referred to by Heyns.
“Ward councillors consult with the neighbourhood watches in their areas to identify needs in their communities. The Melkbos Neighbourhood Watch indicated that they needed a surveillance drone for their joint operations with the SAPS and allocated funds from the ward allocation budget for this purpose,” she said.
Grose said the drone purchase had nothing to do with the R3m tender mentioned. She said the drone was currently in safe keeping and was on the City’s Safety and Security Directorate’s support services’ asset register.
“The tender process was not required for this purchase. It was a legitimate supply chain management (SCM) process, namely a RFQ, as the price was expected to be less than R200 000. It was done strictly in accordance to the SCM process without any interference from anyone,” she said.
However, Heyns said all RFQs were on the official data portal of the City, but the RFQ referred to was not there since January 2015.
“The City purchased other drones a year or two ago. Is this drone part of it or not, as it appears that they are also sitting in a warehouse somewhere?” he said.