Cape Town -
The auditor-general has been asked to audit spending on the upgrade of President Jacob Zuma’s private residence at Nkandla, Public Works Minister Thulas Nxesi has announced.
Nxesi said the possibility of prices being inflated because of the “lack of controls” in the Department of Public Works could not be ruled out. That was why Auditor-General Terence Nombembe had been asked to investigate.
He told members of the National Council of Provinces that Nombembe had been asked “to audit all classified projects”, including those in the Department of Public Works’ so-called prestige portfolio, which includes ministerial and presidential residences.
Developments at Nkandla, which Nxesi has steadfastly maintained are necessary security arrangements based on a needs assessment, are reportedly costing R240 million in public funds.
He has just as steadfastly refused to give details on the basis that the information is classified in terms of the National Key Points Act.
On Thursday, Nxesi would not give a figure for the amount being spent on the Nkandla upgrade, which he said had started in 2009 and was due for completion in mid-2013.
But he said many Public Works projects had ended up costing much more than their original price.
“The question of a possibility of inflated figures cannot be ruled out,” he said. It was “common knowledge that many projects in the public works department have had variations where they end up being three times the original price”.
He cited a Limpopo hospital project for which the department quoted R360m, but which was brought down to R260m after the intervention of the Department of Health and the Treasury.
The Department of Public Works had quoted R28m to renovate the offices of the Health Ministry – but this had been contested by engineers employed by Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi and the bill was reduced to R5m, he said.
Nxesi said the cost of renovating the department’s own headquarters, which started in 2006 at a projected cost of R69m, had escalated over five years to R230m by December last year, when it took occupation of the building.
This was “more than three times the original price”, Nxesi said.
“Clearly the lack of controls and qualified built-environment personnel and even corruption and collusion have contributed to the inflation of these prices,” he said.
Because of the lack of controls in the department, inflation of the costs associated with Nkandla could not be ruled out, he said.
“This is why we asked the auditor-general to audit all prestige projects.” He stressed that if there was corruption in the Nkandla project the blame would lie at the door of the department and not Zuma.
“The president has nothing to do with it,” he said. The project was being implemented by Public Works on the basis of the recommendations of the SAPS, Defence Department and State Security.
Nombembe’s findings “will tell us if we must do our own investigation into pricing”, Nxesi said.
He did not want to discuss the National Key Points Act as the minister responsible was Defence and Military Veterans Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula.
However, as the Nkandla homestead had been classified a national key point, “the information is privileged and confidential and thus can’t be disclosed”.
Nxesi gave no indication of how long the auditor-general’s probe would take.
Political Bureau