Councillors demand R31 Million tender report

EKURHULENI – A special council meeting was held on August 14 to discuss the Gobodo report, which investigated the QBIT tender that was awarded to QBIT by the City Manager (Accounting Officer), Khaya Ngema.

Irregularities associated with the QBIT tender were under investigation. The tender awarded R31 million to the company QBIT for service delivery, the appointment was done by the City Manager against the advice of the Corporate and Legal Department of the Ekurhuleni Metro Municipality.

The council took a resolution on January 13, 2013 that the matter be investigated by the Special Investigative Unit as a matter of urgency.

Gobodo Forensic and Investigative Accounting investigated the tender against the instruction of the Council.

Even though the report was tabled in the special council meeting held on August 14, the report was not discussed. The explanation councillors received when asked why they were not to discuss the matter in the special meeting, they explained that a legal adviser said that it was not fair to the officials in question, the officials under investigation should have the opportunity to see the report first so that they are able to respond to the findings themselves.

Councillors have expressed their concern about the way the investigation and the report were being handled.

DA spokesperson Fortune Mahano said: “The Democratic Alliance will expose all attempts by the ANC in Ekurhuleni to brush under the carpet an investigation into alleged fraud, involving senior officials – and possibly politicians – worth millions of rands of public money.”

“It is strange that councillors are sworn in that they must always protect the interests of their communities, and must serve the residents of Ekurhuleni. How can councillors do it when the ANC and Senior Management of Ekurhuleni are making use of dictator tactics like this in withholding information from councillors?” Cllr Izak Berg commented on the proceedings of the special meeting.

This is also not the first item implicating the City Manager that has been handled suspiciously.

“It is alleged that they (EMM) claimed that his signature was forged in the Lesira Teq matter, without tabling findings of a signature specialist,” Cllr Berg explains.

The DA has also sent out two press releases after the meeting, demanding that the City Manager be suspended until the findings of the report are shared with the rest of the council.

An ANC representative replied to this press release, that the suspension of the City Manager would be an ill-informed move.

“It is not surprising that the DA has taken this route of accusing the ANC on this matter. They accuse us of everything anyway. They are the opposition, and they will use any opportunity to portray themselves as saints at our expense,” ANC Chief Whip Cllr Robert Mashego countered.

“This attitude of opportunistic and cheap politics ends up blinding the DA from making informed decisions on issues.”

The next Council Meeting will take place on August 28 where, according to a press release from EMM ,the Godobo report will be tabled yet again.

“After being informed by legal experts that it would be detrimental and/or even result in a litigation against Council to circulate the report to all councillors, before the people who are cited are given a chance to respond to it, we immediately demanded that this process be speeded up so that councillors can get the report as soon as possible and deliberate on it. This will be finalised in time before the next council meeting on Thursday August 28, and the forensic report will then be handed out to all councillors for deliberation on that day,” Mashego explains.