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The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Limpopo welcomes the raid of the Directorate of Priority Crimes (HAWKS) on the Ba-Phalaborwa Local municipality last week.

The raid is to gather evidence on tender corruption in excess of R30 million.

Dodgy tenders include the pool of consulting engineering services providers for infrastructure development projects, and the pool of hiring of property plant and equipment for the last 3 years.

Ba-Phalaborwa local municipality received a qualified audit opinion during the last period under review. The Auditor -General flagged irregularities on procurement processes during the 2018/19 financial year which include:

Some bid documentation did not stipulate the minimum threshold for local production and content as required by the 2017 preferential procurement regulation

Supply Chain Management (SCM) role players whose partners had a private or business interest in contracts awarded by the municipality participated in the process relating to that contract in contravention of SCM processes

Reasonable steps were not taken to prevent irregular expenditure and the expenditure disclosed does not reflect the full extent of the irregular expenditure incurred. The majority of disclosed irregular expenditure was caused by non-compliance of the SCM processes

The Auditor -General was unable to determine whether the irregular expenditure for the municipality could be adjusted for R217 158 517 and R252 633 054 for 2018 and 2019 respectively.

The municipality’s further failed to investigate R99 659 596 of unauthorised expenditure by willfully defying internal controls. This is indicative of the lack of stringent internal controls and must be attended to immediately.

During the last decade not one municipal official was found guilty of maladministration or mismanagement of funds. Officials have been acting with impunity, enriching themselves and their cronies at the expense of the Ba-Phalaborwa tax payer.

It can no longer be business as usual. If it was not for interventions from the mine and private sector, there would be no service delivery in Phalaborwa. The political executive of the municipality must step up and hold officials to account for flouting the MFMA.

Phalaborwa town could potentially be an economic hub in the province. It is a gateway to the Kruger National Park, is surrounded by game farm and lodges has miming activities. It is the duty of Phalaborwa local municipality to spend their budget prudently on service delivery, not only to improve the lives of all residents, but also to create a conducive environment to stimulate investment.

The DA will not allow the unabated lotting of municipalities to continue in our province and we call on the HAWKS to expedite their investigation and to arrest all those implicated.

Issued by The DA