Durban - OVER 7000 electricity meters in the eThekwini district have not been read in more than a year, with no clear reasons given for this state of affairs.
This was one of a range of findings contained in an audit committee report, which also found that eThekwini Municipality had incurred R50.2million in irregular expenditure in the quarter ending in March.
The report, presented by audit committee chairperson Nala Mhlongo to the executive committee yesterday, highlighted a severe lack of consequence management in the city.
According to the report, various business units in the city had defaulted or broke municipal rules, including those governing procurement, with no corrective action plans initiated.
The electricity, water and sanitation, human settlements and economic development departments, and Moses Mabhida Stadium, among other entities, had procured various services without valid contracts, did not comply with the Municipal Finance Management Act, and did not follow tender processes (including spending R16.9m to revamp the Glebelands hostel) among the transgressions, which came to over R50m.
The report states that the city management had not provided the committee with risk-mitigation controls for the victimisation of witnesses who are the subordinates of some employees implicated in corrupt activities.
There were no controls for intimidation and threats to potential witnesses and for tampering with essential evidence like audit trails and supporting documents. The committee suggested that management should take appropriate and necessary action to allow for a fair investigation process.
These included the following:
* A disciplinary board, set up in 2017 did not account to the executive committee or municipal public accounts committee for its activities and lacked the authority to do proper oversight, while its backlog in cases remained high.
* About 400 recommendations by the city’s integrity and investigations unit in respect of investigations into city business units had not been implemented.
* Staff arrested for fraud and corruption had remained in their posts.
* Over 7000 electricity meters were not read in more than a year, while the reasons for this are unclear.
* The disaster management unit was short of staff, and its advisory forum plan was dysfunctional, having last sat in November 2015.
The committee recommended the enforcement of consequence management, and recording and investigating media reports on claims of corruption.
It also recommended that the disciplinary board get actively involved to ensure an improvement.
Due to the high level of irregularities around tenders, the committee recommended that audits be conducted on a “proactive” basis on all tenders above R50m as from this month, and in subsequent years on tenders above R10m.
Council speaker William Mapena recommended that the municipal manager’s office give feedback on the implementation of the report. He said the legal department was strengthening its compliance manpower to deal with the issues flagged.
The DA said people involved in wrongdoing were not being taken to task.
“One example is the R16.9m spent without tender processes on the upgrade at (Glebelands) hostel. The reason for no consequence management was that there was no fraud committed.
“It’s also worrying that employees who were arrested are still working, and this could present a lot of complications in the investigation process.
“They could interfere with evidence and witnesses, as indicated in the report. We’re reliably informed that some of those who were arrested along with (mayor) Zandile Gumede are still at work,” the DA pointed out.
The IFP said it was surprised by the report because the issues raised had been deliberately ignored for a long time.
“We’ve been highlighting these issues and warning they were bringing the municipality down. There’s a lack of action against transgressors, because some of the perpetrators of wrongdoing are protected by politicians.”