The East Rand Water Care Company (Erwat) recently came under scrutiny from the DA for what the opposition party claimed in a recent press release was “suspicious and wasteful” expenditure.
According to the DA’s press release in a recent release of quarterly financials, it appeared alleged exorbitant spending had been occurring at the wastewater company.
DA MP Michael Waters raised the concerns in parliament regarding the following:
• Spent R84 000 on twin-ply toilet paper, which means each employee, on average, visits the toilet a minimum of five times per day.
• Paid R1 040 per ream of A4 blue printing paper which retails at R140 per ream – 740 per cent above retail price.
• Spent a total of R165 000 on tea and coffee, equating to approximately almost 600 000 cups of coffee or 12 cups of coffee per employee per day.
• R165 000 on biscuits.
• R2 000 per person for boardroom lunches for the management of Erwat.
A source then provided the report to the City Times.
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Various discrepancies pertaining to irregularities according to sound accounting practice could be found.
This included variations in order numbers, dates jumping back and forth and no clear indication of June financials as April and May appear but various discrepancies appear in the month of June.
The City Times contacted Erwat regarding the allegations.
In their response, Erwat stated the following:
The report submitted to the City of Ekurhuleni (CoE) was a quarterly report on the implementation of the Supply Chain Management (SCM) policy of Erwat that is directly extracted from its Finance and SCM system.
According to Erwat CFO Wim Louw, Erwat submits monthly financial schedules to the CoE, and on a quarterly basis, submits Section 52 financial reports to the city.
Erwat also prepares quarterly financial statements for internal use which are audited by the CoE internal audit team.
The CoE consolidates all reports and sends them to the National Treasury.
A copy of the original report sent to CoE was forwarded to the City Times.
Erwat said the DA’s alleged claims in parliament were false and provided what they deemed were accurate figures:
• Twin-ply toilet paper: This allegation is false. Erwat spent R31 286.53 in the fourth quarter of the 2017/18 financial year.
• Blue printing paper: This allegation is false. Erwat spent a total of R1 428.70 on blue paper for the financial year as opposed to the R1 040 per ream. The R1 428.70 was for two boxes and five reams.
• Coffee and tea: This allegation is false. In the fourth quarter, Erwat spent R46 488 as opposed to the alleged amount of R165 000 for the quarter.
• Biscuits: This allegation is false. For the twelve-month period ended 30 June 2018, Erwat spent an amount of R17 627.60 on biscuits as opposed to the alleged amount of R165 000 per quarter.
• Boardroom lunches: This allegation is false. No records were identified with a cost per person of anywhere close to R2 000 per person.
According to Erwat, the contents of the evidence submitted by the City Times does not correspond with the information submitted by Erwat to CoE for inclusion in the Council agenda.
The original report contains details of orders issued for the period April 1 to June 30.
The response further stated some order numbers and the dates as listed in the above query and evidence provided are not Erwat order numbers and some dates do not correspond with calendar days.
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