Money owed to the City of Tshwane by the Madibeng Municipality was allegedly paid into a fraudulent account, it was revealed during a Madibeng council meeting with the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) on Tuesday.
MEC For Cooperative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs, Gaoage Oageng Molapisi has invoked Section 106, of the Municipal Systems Act to investigate allegations of maladministration and malfeasance in Madibeng. This empowers the MEC for local government to request information or appoint investigators if he has reason to believe that maladministration, fraud, corruption or any other serious malpractice has occurred or is occurring in a municipality.
“The allegations are of a serious nature, and we expect councillors and officials of the municipality to cooperate and assist in providing the necessary information that will assist the investigation,” Molapisi told councillors.
Molapisi has appointed a law firm to conduct an investigation which will among other things, focus on the irregular appointment of municipal officials and service providers, failure by council to convene statutory meetings as prescribed by legislation and rules of order of the council.
The investigation follows a directive by the Minister for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Velenkosini Hlabisa, who had requested MEC Molapisi to conduct an investigation in the municipality in terms of Section 106 of the Municipal Systems Act.
The investigators will look into various allegations of maladministration and fraud.
During the meeting, the allegations to be investigated were tabled.
These include duplicate payments to service providers by municipal officials and unlawful changes to all bulk accounts, resulting in payment owed to the City of Tshwane being paid into a fraudulent account. The employees who were charged with these allegations were reinstated without a proper investigation.
Other allegations are:
• The irregular appointment of service providers and employees.
• Irregular appointment of two Information and Communication Technology (ICT) companies, namely Intelligence Everywhere and Sizwe, which are still being paid for the same services.
• Irregular appointment of security companies in the municipality.
• The history of procurement of security companies over the past five years is to be appraised, and action instituted if procurement anomalies are found.
• The failure of Madibeng to adhere to the conditions applicable to government grant expenditure over the past five financial years.
The investigation will be conducted during the next three months after which a report with clear recommendations will be presented to the MEC.
The Democratic Alliance said it would give its full co-operation in this investigation. “Opposition parties were accused of staging walk-outs and making it difficult for the council to reach a quorum. Opposition parties have just come to a point where they are sick and tired of the ANC pushing through items in council because of its majority, allowing instability, and turning a blind eye to corruption. Our communities deserve proper service delivery in Madibeng,” DA councillor Erna Rossouw said.