Johannesburg - Government officials who colluded with contractors to defraud the state of millions of rand by inflating renovation costs on the ministerial homes are to face criminal charges.
Public Works Minister Thulas Nxesi revealed this in his parliamentary reply to ANC MP Celiwe Madlopha last week.
Nxesi said the impending legal action was part of the recommendations by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU), after the body completed its investigations into numerous illegal leases and projects.
“We have instituted court actions to recover monies wrongly paid by the (public works) department,” Nxesi said.
The civil proceedings are part of the embattled department’s efforts to recover the money misused on exorbitant makeovers of politicians’ homes. Renovations included spa baths and other cosmetic items.
The expenditure has also caught the attention of Auditor-General Terence Nombembe.
Nxesi said his ministry had since taken control of the so-called prestige portfolio, and was managing the renovations of ministerial homes in relation to its Pretoria operations.
The centralisation came after the SIU recently completed its investigations into the unit’s Pretoria operations.
The move, Nxesi said, had already borne results, with the cancellation of numerous “highly priced” projects.
Investigations had, among others, revealed that about R27 million was spent to renovate houses, with R4.7m of that being paid without supporting documents.
The department’s legal adviser, Phillip Sobi Masilo, said on Monday that three officials were implicated in the investigation in Pretoria.
Asked what punitive measures would be taken against the officials, Masilo said the department was “not in a position to pre-empt the sanctions” to be meted out to the three officials.
“That would only be decided at a later stage by the chairperson of the disciplinary hearing,” he said.
Meanwhile, Nxesi said investigations into the irregularities in Cape Town, where R100m was spent on renovating 11 ministerial houses, were continuing.
Part of the investigations relates to the R15m spent on a Cape Town house allocated to Rural Development Minister Gugile Nkwinti. The other relates to refurbishments to a house costing R10.67m, earmarked for use by Deputy Transport Minister Lydia Chikunga.
Masilo said the department was still awaiting the preliminary report from the SIU investigation before it could prosecute.
“The process of finalising a summons (to recover monies that have been wrongly paid) to the high court is in the advanced stages,” said Masilo.
Nxesi said the SIU investigations had, together with recent findings of the Competition Commission, confirmed “overpricing and collusion” between some officials and sections of the construction industry.
In all, Public Works had probed about 40 leases and projects. From this, 23 had been completed, resulting in “successful” disciplinary actions.
The minister said three officials, including a deputy director-general, had been dismissed and six others had been suspended.
The department was awaiting a report from a disciplinary hearing involving a chief director, while the matter involving another deputy director-general was expected to be finalised soon.
A multi-agency probe is also under way into the estimated R240m upgrades made to President Jacob Zuma’s private home at Nkandla.
The Star