MBOMBELA – The Office of the Speaker in the legislature has disclosed that during the last State of the Province Address (Sopa), the provincial legislature saved itself thousands of rand in expenditure for decor and catering, thanks to cost curtailment.
This was in contrast with the previous years’ expenditure which amounted to double or triple the cost spent this year, according to the Acting Secretary of the Legislature, Mr Josiah Silinda.
“During the past few years, we’ve been receiving exorbitant amounts in quotations submitted, which was a cause for concern, to curtail costs, and by all means we did.
“Seeing that the amounts we were looking at for catering and decor were stipulated not to exceed R1 million, there was no need to issue a tender, but we requested quotations from service providers in our database, and it was done.
“Another factor that needs to be taken into cognisance, is the hiring of a venue, which, in the main, Mbombela Stadium we have to pay more than R100 000, yet the alternative we eventually chose, Nuttinghouse, cost us only R35 000 – it is private and very spacious, making it conducive to host events of such magnitude,” Silinda pointed out.
He was responding to a communique by the Democratic Alliance, circulated to media houses via email on Sunday which read,
“Serious allegations of contract rigging levelled against Mpumalanga Legislature Speaker Thandi Shongwe must be investigated.”
On Friday May 15 the DA lodged an official complaint with the Office of the Premier against Shongwe and requested that the Integrity Unit, located within the premier’s office, should investigate the allegations.
The DA received anonymous correspondence that suggested that the speaker used her position to award contracts worth thousands of rand to family members for the catering and decor of the 2015 Sopa.
“The matter is now in the hands of Premier David Mabuza to launch an investigation and we trust that he will give this matter the attention it deserves,” a DA press release read.
Silinda further reiterated thus in response to the DA’s allegations,
“The legislature considers these allegations as malicious and defamatory, because the legislature has formal supply procedures that are governed by the Financial Management of Parliament and Provincial Legislature Act as amended.
“This Act confers financial management function to the accounting officer and it is therefore not the responsibility of the speaker or any other member of the legislature to appoint service provider or to process tenders.
The legislature has clear procedures on sourcing and appointment of service providers which is based on acceptable supply chain management procedures.
“As far as we are concerned the legislature has followed all due processes and the Speaker did not use her position to favour nor did she take part in appointment of service providers during the aforementioned event.
“It is also unfortunate and regrettable that the DA, which is part of the legislature, can issue such serious accusations against the Speaker without proper verification of facts within the organization unless it seeks to pursue narrow political goal scoring,” he added.
Silinda pointed out that Shongwe, in her capacity as the speaker of the legislature, did not participate in any selection of service providers, but it was the prerogative of the administration and not the political office.
“As can be derived from the above, our choice of service providers was done on merit and meeting the required criteria.
What is of essence here is that the right procedures were carried out without fear or favour,” said Silinda.
