By Mzukona Mantshontsho
As we celebrate Transport month, AgangSA recently sent out a statement following the Auditor-General’s report and suggested that there was corruption in the City of Johannesburg’s Transport department.
AgangSA had vowed at their launch on Saturday 22 June 2013 that they would not allow government employees to do business with government.
AgangSA in their recent statement sent out on Tuesday 1 October 2013 at the beginning of Transport month said: “The Auditor-General has found that corruption is rife in the City of Johannesburg’s transport department with over R100-million in contracts having been awarded to companies owned by its employees”.
“The report also shows that eight officials have resigned to avoid disciplinary processes following the completion of forensic investigations and that 13 of the 16 officials who have been implicated are still employed by the city. It beggars belief that there are still no systems in place to ensure that the most basic procurement checks are conducted and that once again several of the suspects have slipped away”.
“This is yet more proof that corruption is endemic in government. For nearly 20 years the ANC government has allowed billions of rands to be stolen that should be creating jobs and homes and paying for textbooks and teachers, medicines and nurses. AgangSA believes we must create a clean, competent government by banning all government officials and their families doing business with government and for all officials, starting with the President, to publish their accounts annually. We must restore integrity to a professional public service that serves the South African people and ensure that public money is spent where it is needed most”.
TransformSA spoke to Lisa Seftel, Executive Director at the Transport department in Johannesburg, and she had the following response from her communications directorate:
“This statement referredto cases that the auditor general has identified.These are:
· Eighty-eight (88) cases were in relation to all forensic investigations that the City’s Group Assurance has been investigating during the past financial years (2011/12 and 12/13. Not all cases related to awarding of tenders to City employees.
· In the financial year 2011/12, ten (10) tenders were awarded to city employees and 122 awarded to other State employees
· In the financial year 2012/13 interim audit, no tenders were awarded toCity employees while 27 were awarded to Stateemployees
· The employee indicated as a director of KPMG was proven not to have been a director of KPMG nor a principal shareholder.
· The director from Business Connexion resigned from the City in the earlier years and was not in conflict in the year under review.
· The City has developed a system in the 2012/13 financial year to stop awards from being made to employees of the City and hence the zero awards shown in the interim Audit.
· It is important to note that there is currently no exhaustive data base of State employees. This makes it difficult for any municipality in the country to independently establish, during thebidding process, if any of the bidding directors are State department’s employees.
· Bidders are, however, required to disclose in their bidding documents if any of their directors are in the employ of the State. Any false declarations amounts to fraud and once established, due legal process is entered into, which alsogetreported SAPS”.