EKURHULENI – The whistle-blower investigated the matter to such an extent, with complete detail, that the public protector Adv. Thuli Madonsela could not turn the case down and happily accepted it.
Although the whistle-blower is remaining anonymous; he/she saw a picture of independent councillor Izak Berg in the RECORD with Adv. Madonsela. He/she then knew that there was only one person he/she could tell their story to in order to secure a thorough investigation.
There have been previous grievances/complaints against Ngema, one pertaining to the QBIT contract which was awarded and up until today, two to three years later, EMM (Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality) has done nothing to investigate the matter further, which is of huge concern to the whistle-blower and that is why he/she went to Berg with his/her complaint.
In the investigating documentation it states that contractors are awarded an amount of money in accordance to their points – being a point system.
One contracting company involved had to be awarded R2 000 000 after their points were calculated, instead Ngema signed off documents entitling them to receive payments of an amount which was calculated to R14 745 628.
An amount of more than R7 500 000 was paid out to the account of this contractor only qualifying for work up to R2 million, which has links with the officials a few days before Christmas. In the evidence documents, the whistle-blower confirms that Ngema signed off on documents entitling the contractor to get paid.
There has also been suspicions, which will thoroughly be investigated, that the officials have close links with the contractors and members of the ANC.
It was also confirmed that there was no track record of what the money was being used for, with projects pertaining to roads and transport, as numerous other project came about.
Recently, the Alberton RECORD published comments by Clr Izak Berg from the Independent Ratepayers Association of South Africa (IRASA), who also complained about the actions of the Ekurhuleni City Manager, who he believes has cost the metro millions of rands in legal fees (fruitless and wasteful expenditure).
This follows, according to him, when it comes to a tender for the provision of roads maintenance and rehabilitation services. According to Berg, the project was halted after the Supply Chain Management Policy was interfered with, which is currently costing the Metro millions of rands on legal fees.
He says the city manager also did not follow the rules and regulations of the supply change policy. Berg questioned the city manager’s hand in the more than a million rand spent on his legal battle against the previous City Manager (Patrick Flusk) of which the EMM footed the bill, even though Flusk was not in the employment of the EMM anymore.
“As a metro we take these matters seriously and will fully cooperate with the public protector’s office,” municipal spokesperson Zweli Dlamini said.
He also said that the municipality would accept the findings of the investigation.
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