Durban - The eThekwini municipality spent more than R600 million on expired contracts, which forms part of nearly R1.5 billion in irregular expenditure identified in the 2018/2019 financial year.
This emerged when the 2018/2019 report was discussed at the municipality’s executive committee meeting this week. “Irregular expenditure totalling R1.4 782 139 86.49, relating to SCM (supply chain management) non-compliance, has been identified to date,” the report said.
It said that more than R233 293 276.90 from previous financial years was included in the 2018/2019 financial year’s total figure.
About R24.5m was identified as “fruitless and wasteful expenditure” in the 2018/2019 financial year.
In an analysis of the major contributors to the irregular expenditure, the report said that when contracts expired there were delays in the awarding of new contracts. “To ensure continuity of service delivery, expired contracts were utilised using the same rates as the initial valid awards,” the report said. This process of awarding these contracts cost the city R614m, the report said.
Another non-compliance matter was that advertisements for goods and services for more than R10m were made for a period which was less than the 30 days required. This failure cost the city R36 687 589 605.
Deputy mayor Belinda Scott told municipal manager Sipho Nzuza that he should not take unlawful requests from people who wanted special favours done.
She said in the end “the buck stopped with him”, and what she was saying came straight from the ANC’s leadership.
The Daily News’s sister paper The Mercury has previously reported that Nzuza, who is expected to testify against former mayor Zandile Gumede in her fraud and corruption case, might divulge details about how he was pressured into signing contracts worth millions of rand.
Scott said that they wanted the recommendations by the City Integrity and Investigations Unit to be implemented, and that there had to be consequence management.
IFP exco member Mdu Nkosi said that there had been calls for the city to have a finance committee since 2016. He said the city was currently being run like a small local municipality.
In an interview with the Daily News, DA eThekwini councillor Nicole Graham said what was being said by the city was “all well and good” and the sentiments expressed during the exco meeting were encouraging, but what the DA wanted to see was action being taken. Earlier yesterday, she had told the council that people who had been put into the supply chain management process to line their pockets needed to be removed.
Mayor Mxolisi Kaunda said action needed to be taken. “We aren’t going to leave any stone unturned,” he said.
Another matter discussed in council was that government departments owed the city more than R1bn. Scott said she would meet Finance MEC Ravi Pillay to discuss how the problem could be resolved.
Also discussed was the more than R23m owed to the city by errant ward councillors and city officials.
Scott said they would look at ways of recovering the money, which included making deductions from their salaries.