Corruption in W Cape municipalities targeted

Published Nov 3, 2004

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The Western Cape government is to launch a corruption unit that is to crack down on nepotism in municipalities.

The awarding of tenders is also to come under scrutiny.

Among the unit's other tasks will be to investigate underspending by municipalities and the use of money from the national and provincial governments for projects other than it has been allocated.

Some municipalities had weak financial and corruption controls, the MEC for Local Government and Housing, Marius Fransman, said on Tuesday.

"We have had sporadic corruption in the Kannaland municipality and here and there we find corruption happening. We want to prevent this," he said.

His anti-corruption unit is to be launched on Sunday and is part of Project Consolidate, a national initiative to help struggling municipalities deliver basic services and alleviate poverty.

The City of Cape Town is among 11 municipalities in the Western Cape that are to be assisted. They also include De Doorns, Prince Albert, Cederberg, Matzikama, Witzenberg, Kannaland, Central Karoo and Beaufort West.

The project aims to tackle the lack of access to sanitation, electricity, roads, refuse removal, social amenities and economic opportunities.

Fransman said he had met the province's 30 municipal managers to inform them of the corruption unit's "intelligence analysis".

"The unit will have information systems to track the way in which municipal employees have been and will be appointed," he said.

"We will determine whether they have the skills or whether there was nepotism or patronage involved and put systems in place to correct this."

The awarding of tenders would also be scrutinised.

"We will see whether the tenders were awarded because of the expertise and excellence of the service provider or because of nepotism."

Gerhard Ras, provincial manager of the Project Consolidate programme, said the corruption unit would deal with municipalities "sitting with large surpluses of funding" instead of using it for service delivery and infrastructure.

"We are not saying that this is necessarily corrupt, but it is highly irregular," said Ras.

"We will look at the way municipalities handle their funds from the government for specific services for the indigent. We have reason to believe that these funds are not being used specifically for their intended purpose."

Project Consolidate also included the launch of a new municipal billing system.

Fransman said the billing systems many municipalities used were "not strong enough".

"Municipalities need to ensure that their systems contain correct and valid information about their customers."

"The pilot project will be the Cederberg municipality, where the system will clean up databases and reduce unnecessary costs to residents."

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