The party believes the ANC’s rejection of this solution is so incredible as to be suspicious, taking into account that Ekurhuleni has been named by President Jacob Zuma himself as the most corrupt metro in Gauteng, and that the mayor and his executive committee had often spoken of their commitment to running a clean local government.
The DA fought for this provision during recent discussions in two of council’s internal committees on the review of the municipality’s supply chain management policy.
Both the oversight committees of the mayor and Legislature (OCMOL) and Finance rejected outright the DA’s proposal to open the proceedings of the Bid Evaluation and Bid Adjudication committees to the public and the media.
As a result, the DA’s respective spokespersons on these portfolios, Eddie Taylor and Ashor Sarupen, tabled minority reports to accompany the recommendations in the item to full council on Thursday, last week.
Again, the ruling party used its majority to reject the proposal out of hand, with the OCMOL chair going so far as to suggest the DA had attempted to ambush his committee on the matter of the minority report.
Shadow MMC for Finance, Eddie Taylor, told the council that the message from residents in Ekurhuleni’s township areas was clear, namely: “We are sick and tired of corruption”.
According to Taylor, tender fraud at all levels of government was the biggest source of unhappiness and the best antidote to the ruling party’s corrupt administration was the DA’s example of transparency and accountability.
DA spokesperson on the Legislature, Sarupen, believes it is a no-brainer that the best way to deal with corruption is to open up every step of the tender process to scrutiny.
In 2006, when the DA came to power in Cape Town, it immediately opened its administration up to scrutiny.
Amongst other measures, the city’s Bid Adjudication Tender Award Committee, which decides all outside contracts, was opened to the public.
This policy was instituted in both Midvaal and Tlokwe, when the DA took control of those municipalities.
The DA has proposed making this standard practice in Ekurhuleni, in an attempt to put a stop to the countless tender scandals which have contributed to the metro’s high corruption barometer.
Taylor told the ruling party to remember “this day in council”, Halloween 2013, because in 2016 when the DA took control of the metro, it would immediately overturn the decision made and, in one simple step, eliminate tender fraud entirely.
His comments were booed by ANC members.
The DA added that not one reason had been put forward by the ANC for not introducing transparent systems, nor did any member suggest alternatives to the DA’s proposal.
