Durban - Staff members in the eThekwini Municipality supply chain management (SCM) unit are allegedly withholding letters of appointment for service providers in order to solicit bribes.
At least three councillors in the Finance Portfolio Committee said the committee was briefed on the allegation by mayor Mxolisi Kaunda during a committee meeting last week.
Letters of appointment give service providers, who have been appointed to do work for the municipality, the authority to start working.
Without the letter, the service provider cannot legally work and risks not being paid for any work that has been done.
The councillors said they were not surprised by the allegation as they have long suspected that there are many illegalities happening inside the SCM unit. They cited the unusual delays whenever procurement requests had to be made.
ActionSA councillor Busi Radebe said that during a portfolio committee meeting last Tuesday, they were briefed on the changes made to the SCM policies and operations.
She said the mayor briefed the councillors on the allegations of malfeasance and corruption inside the unit.
“We are happy that this has finally been brought to light because a lot of our problems come from the SCM unit. Once people get employed there, they behave like gods and their behaviour undermines service delivery and tarnishes the image of the city,” she said.
DA councillor Thabani Mthethwa said anyone implicated in acts of corruption within the unit should be fired, saying the unit was central to service delivery and such conduct was tantamount to sabotage of service delivery.
He concurred that the mayor had detailed allegations of corruption inside the unit that include officials “walking around” with letters of appointment that are supposed to be given to those who have been appointed.
Mthethwa said officials who should be giving out these letters once the bid committee has recommended the appointment of a service provider, are withholding them demanding that the service provider pays a bribe.
Mthethwa said they learnt from one of the councillors in the committee that it was not only big suppliers that were extorted in this fashion.
“The councillor said even small contractors who had done work for the city had to pay bribes to be paid for the work.
“This councillor said the contractors’ invoices are withheld and when the contractor calls to ask about the delays in the payment they are told ‘khuluma ndoda’ (speak man) which is a code to pay a bribe for the invoice to be processed,” he said.
Mthethwa said such deliberate delays and extortion had a serious impact on service delivery, and the people who were behaving in such a manner should be fired because they are the enemy of service delivery.
Sunitha Maharaj of the Minority Front, who also sits on the committee, said she too was present when the mayor made the remarks.
She said the party was pleased that the allegations were being taken seriously.
Mayoral spokesperson Mluleki Mntungwa said: “We can’t confirm the remarks by the mayor, but the leadership of the city is committed to running a clean and transparent administration.”