DURBAN - One corridor of the eThekwini Municipality’s Integrated Rapid Public Transport Network (IRPTN) bus project, cost the city close to R120 million in the 2020 and 2021 financial year.
This was revealed by Business Unit Leader at the Auditor General’s KZN office, Ntombifuthi Mhlongo, during the tabling of the municipal annual financial report before the city council, on Thursday.
IRPTN was, according to the municipality, launched to provide residents of eThekwini with a flexible, safe, cost-effective, and seamless transportation experience.
It has three corridors, namely, corridor one, two and three. The scope of corridor three included Bridge City, Pinetown and New Germany, which was selected for auditing in the years in question.
Mhlongo said: “From inception of the corridor project, the total amount of standing costs paid to date amounted to R116 707 921 for 10 work packages or contracts. The standing costs, confirmed by the project manager in a written response dated November 4, 2021, could not be verified due to limitation of scope. The lack of documentation to verify the standing costs claimed by the contractors over the various contracts can include costs that could have been avoided. A full review of the entire project will be done in the next financial year to evaluate if all standing costs are valid and were unavoidable.”
She also disclosed that a phase of the housing project which was earmarked for the Kennedy Road and Amaoti Housing Projects, in the aftermath of the Covid-19 crises, failed to materialise in the intended time span.
“Findings were identified on timeline and quality, as critical project management and monitoring was not effectively conducted at key milestone dates of the project. Hence the project was not completed within the planned completion date. Quality defects such as structural cracks and exposed steel reinforcement bars were noted during the inspection of the structure of the houses,” said Mhlongo.
AGSA urged municipal management to put preventative measures in place and consequence proceedings emanating from irregularity.
“The city’s management should improve controls over the demand management and planning to ensure that competitive bidding process is followed. The accounting officer should implement and monitor effective consequence management structures within the municipality, to ensure disciplinary proceedings are instituted timeously and officials are held accountable for their actions.
“There should be an integration of preventative controls into processes and procedures so that they are applied on a continuous basis and are embedded into the control environment. Proper record-keeping measures should be implemented to ensure that complete, relevant and accurate information is accessible and available to assist financial and performance reports, as well as compliance to applicable legislation,” said Mhlongo.
Daily News