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The Democratic Alliance (DA) Caucus in Mangaung has noted with concern that the Bid Adjudication Committee was not composed in terms of the Supply Chain Management Regulations as gazetted. This came to light during an Audit Committee meeting on 13 August 2021.

The Mangaung Metro Municipality (MMM) has been plagued by service providers who do not complete projects, where the work was not completed efficiently or instances where the money has been looted and the service provider disappeared.

The Bid Adjudication Committee must ensure that:
• all necessary bid documents have been submitted,
• disqualifications are justified, and that valid and accountable reasons and motivations were furnished for passing over of bids,
• scoring has been fair, consistent, and correctly calculated and applied, and
• declarations of interest have been taken cognizance of.

The Auditor-General proposed that management should investigate all contracts awarded during the financial year to date, as well as contracts awarded in previous financial years. In all instances where the Bid Adjudication Committee was not composed in terms of the Supply Chain Management Regulations, all payments relating to these payments should be reported as irregular expenditure in the financial statements.

The DA sent the following questions to the Acting City Manager, Mr. Tebogo Mothlashuping, the Speaker, Cllr Stefani Lockman Naidoo, and Executive Mayor, Cllr Mxolisi Siyonzana:

1. Who was the members of the Bid Adjudication Committee for the mentioned financial year(s)?
2. Provide reasons why the committee was not composed in terms of the regulation for supply chain management.
3. Supply a list of contracts or bids approved by this illegal committee.
4. Supply the dates of the meetings held by the committee and minutes.

Judge Raymond Zondo, Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court and Chairperson of the Zondo Commission for State Capture, stated in his report Part 6 Volume 1 paragraph 666: “There are allegations also that members of the majority party in both the legislature and municipal council protect each other, even against questions formulated by members of the opposition parties in those structures.”

The DA is committed to stop State Capture and root out corruption in South Africa. It is best to start with Supply Chain Management in municipalities. The Executive Mayor needs to answer these questions and if he refuses, he will be marked as an enabler.

The residents of Mangaung needs to know the truth and the DA will not rest until those responsible for corruption is not held responsible for their actions.

Issued by Cllr Dirk Kotze - Mangaung Ward Councilor