Durban - THE eThekwini Municipality will spend about R40million to get disciplinary processes in 300 cases against some of its employees under way.
However, staff at the city’s legal and human resources departments, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisal, are unhappy with the use of Section 36 to appoint an accounting firm to handle the process and an independent person to chair the proceedings - at a daily rate of R7 500.
Section 36 is used in urgent cases and allows the city to bypass the tender procedure to appoint a company.
The staff argued that the budget of more than R18 million to conduct legal research during the proceedings was proof that the company had no legal expertise.
A proposal from the city manager’s operations office addressed to the bid adjudication committee dated November14, and signed by two senior officials and a senior manager, detailed how much it would cost the taxpayer.
The Daily News has seen the detailed report.
The staff said R39 071 250 would be spent over 24 months, with the current year’s budget being R20 million. Of the total amount, R18.2 million would go to conducting legal research on any points of law raised during the proceedings, among others.
“This amount could increase and only about 38 cases of the 300 will be dealt with. Why not put this to tender? Why bring in outsiders to handle internal matters while we have our own legal, industrial relations and human resources departments?,” said the staff.
They said a disciplinary board was established in terms of a council resolution dated June 28, 2017, to monitor consequence management for financial and non-financial misconduct matters.
The board was established in terms of Regulation 4 of the Municipal Regulations on Financial Misconduct.
“What’s the purpose of that board if you hand over, at a high cost, the function of the same board you established? Clause 35 of the municipality’s Supply Chain Management Policy requires the appointment of consultants to be procured through a competitive bidding process if the value of the contract exceeds R200 000.
“ It’s worrying that the process was not followed,” the employees said.
The proposal stated that Morar Incorporated was appointed by the municipality to handle the disciplinary hearings.
It further stated that an independent chairperson would be appointed to chair the hearings at a cost of R7500 per day.
It would cost R1500 an hour to draft a ruling and the outcome of one session, and a further R1500 an hour for attending to preliminary proceedings.
It has been claimed that threats were made to certain individuals handling the internal investigations into corruption, but the Daily News has not been able to confirm this.
A detailed list of questions was sent to the municipality. The city was asked:
* How the disciplinary board was different from the functions that were going to be performed by Morar.
* Whether the municipality was not equipped with the requisite skills and resources in its human resources, industrial relations and legal departments to perform this function.
* If the city was receiving value for ratepayers’ money to be spent on this process.
* Why the city spent R18.2m on legal research and why it hired Morar, an auditing firm and not a law firm.
* Whether Morar rendered any services for this project and if so, how much they were paid.
The city declined to provide clarity.
“Following numerous incidents where internal information is leaked to the media, the city has taken a stance to not honour queries emanating from information that has been obtained illegally with a response.
“It should be noted that the city is not avoiding responding to questions posed, but it denounces, with the contempt it deserves, this unlawful conduct,” municipal spokesperson Msawakhe Mayisela responded.
The IFP said using Section 36 to procure the services was questionable, and it was possible the hearings would not be fair.