Durban – The eThekwini Municipality’s bloated R400 million Covid-19 spend, particularly for the procurement of personal protective equipment (PPE), food hampers and temporary shelters, has come under scrutiny.
Calculations show the City spent an average of R45 000 per homeless person over the past 100 days to sleep in a tent.
Opposition parties are eagerly awaiting the municipality’s internal audit findings into Durban’s Covid-19 expenditure after it was revealed that the City’s bill currently stands at more than R400m.
In a report brought to the City’s executive committee meeting yesterday, it was found R426 937 685 was spent on essential and emergency municipal services to combat the spread of the virus. The major items of expenditure included food distribution, provision for the homeless, PPE, metro police and IT-related costs.
Almost R67m was spent on the homeless. With at most 1 500 homeless people in the shelters collectively, a simple calculation shows that the City spent about R45 000 per homeless person over at least 100 days to sleep in a tent.
The director of the Denis Hurley Centre, Raymond Perrier, said: “The commitment of eThekwini and especially the deputy mayor to provide emergency shelters for the homeless during lockdown was commendable, and Durban achieved more than any other city in the country.
“However, the amount of R66.8m tabled as the spend for the first 100 days of lockdown is surprising. It’s the equivalent of the municipality spending almost R45 000 on each homeless person. It would be interesting to ask them if they feel they received that much value.
“The NGOs who provided almost all the food, a lot of the health care and also specialist accommodation, did so in a very cost-effective way.
’’Their expenses are not included in the above amount and have been funded in part by the R1.6m raised through private donors.”
More than R88m was spent by the municipality on overtime for metro police for conducting roadblocks, after-curfew sting operations and enforcement of the national lockdown regulations.
More than R75m was spent on PPE, sanitisers and hygiene services, while a little over R67m went to food hampers and their distribution.
According to the report to council, between R65 and R100 was spent per meal for the homeless, while R130 was spent per meal for Safer Cities volunteers, including SAPS, Social Development and Health volunteers.
The report stated the City had two hours to procure marquees for the homeless and relied on prices used in the past to benchmark their expenditure.
However, there were other costs that the supplier incurred due to the short notice. The City said it negotiated the supplier down from R12 000 to R7 800 per marquee.
The report also included a spreadsheet of items that were ordered from the suppliers, the quantity and the National Treasury benchmark rate.
In some instances, the City purchased items that far exceeded the price recommended by the National Treasury.
For example, the City paid R820 for a batch of extra-long nitrile gloves, but the National Treasury benchmarked the rate at R278 per batch.
The City purchased reusable bodysuits at R1 930 each, but the Treasury benchmarked the price at R300.
IFP exco member Mdu Nkosi said he wrote to the public protector’s office to investigate the prices of PPE and temporary shelters for the homeless.
Nkosi said he was particularly concerned about the prices of PPE, food hampers and temporary shelters that the city procured.
“I have a strong feeling that something is amiss with the expenditure here,” Nkosi said.
DA chief whip Thabani Mthethwa said that while they could not pre-empt the audit and investigation by the relevant departments internally and nationally, they would be waiting with interest for the findings regarding the procurement and expenditure in this regard.
“In March or April, the government through different ministers expressed concern that there seemed to be an unprecedented increase in prices in food and PPE. It was said that those found with inflated prices must be brought to book.
“It is very concerning that in this report, items were benchmarked at R300 but the municipality paid R1 900. Why would the municipality go against the direct instruction of the government to procure items at a reasonable price?” he asked.
Mthethwa also questioned why the municipality chose to continue using these service providers with exorbitant pricing while there were other suppliers offering reasonable prices on the City’s database of approved service providers.
The Mercury