R670m irregular expenditure uncovered at Emfuleni municipality

The manager of the ransacked Emfuleni municipality, Lucky Leseane, has been accused of hindering the process of dealing with those implicated in irregular expenditure of more than R670 million and the recovery of over R106 million.

Elsje Oosthuizen, chief executive officer of Comperio Consulting, a forensic investigation firm appointed in November 2018 to probe irregular expenditure, has written to Leseane highlighting the impact of his alleged lack of cooperation in its work.

“Progress is hampered due to the lack of support from your office having a negative effect on the criminal, disciplinary and recovery process. We hereby request you to provide us with the necessary assistance to successfully conclude the processes,” she said.

Oosthuizen said Leseane’s reluctance to cooperate had a severe impact on the recovery process as the municipality only has three years, of which two have passed, to recover the money. She said this year Comperio continued the work to ensure that the cost of the probe was not seen as fruitless and wasteful and that action was taken as per the recommendations of the individual reports.

“We have received full cooperation from council, MPAC [municipal public accounts council] and the office of the [chief financial officer]. However, the same cannot be said of your office,” Oosthuizen said in the letter.

The team concluded its investigations into tenders awarded to and payments made to 15 contractors and handed the findings the MPAC in November 2019, but no one has been charged. The municipality incurred irregular expenditure of R670 595 793.74 due to contracts not being concluded in line with regulations, contracts not being extended following due process and procurement processes being manipulated by altering the bid evaluation scores.

Also read: Gauteng govt intervenes in Emfuleni, now there are no services

The probe uncovered a seemingly systematic processing of duplicate payments, fraudulent transactions pertaining to the transfer of contracts, as well as overcharging on agreed monthly fees.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) in the province has called on Premier David Makhura and the Gauteng MEC for cooperative governance and traditional affairs (Cogta), Lebogang Maile, to urgently intervene in the matter to ensure the municipal manager cooperates with the investigations and provides all the necessary support to Comperio Consulting.

“We will not fold our hands and allow [Leseane] to hamper the process of recovering monies stolen from the residents of Emfuleni. If [Makhura] is serious about fighting corruption in this province, he must ensure that those implicated in Emfuleni’s irregular expenditure scandals are held to account,” Kingsol Chabalala, the party’s Emfuleni north constituency head, said yesterday.

What the municipality says: Emfuleni municipality has written to Compario Consulting to request they withdraw the letter complaining about lack of cooperation and publicly apologise.

“This behaviour is against any spirit of good governance. It is clear that the intention is not to assist the process but frustrate it, and guilttrip the office of the municipal manager. The municipality will protect its image, integrity and reputation,” said spokesperson Stanley Gaba yesterday.

He said it was concerning the “letter of complaint” was yet to be received by the intended recipients in the municipality but had been released in the public domain.

Gaba said it was baffling that the letter was made public without the municipality being afforded an opportunity to receive and respond to, or address, this complaint. He said the letter made defamatory accusations that Leseane’s office was not willing, or did not, cooperate with them in implementing the recommendations. [Comperio] failed dismally to reflect that since the municipal manager’s appointment, they had met four times over the process to be followed in implementation of their recommendations, Gaba said.

He said council adopted the Comperio investigations report and referred it to the financial disciplinary board to deal with the allegations of financial misconduct and oversee any recommended disciplinary proceedings.

“The board currently is dealing with these matters, and providing the MEC of Cogta and [the mayoral committee] with weekly reports on progress made. Sufficient progress is being made in this regard, and therefore this procedure cannot be hurried over the danger of jeopardising successful prosecutions,” Gaba said.

He said the deliberate “leak” was aimed at feeding the narrative that Leseane was hindering prosecutions in these matters and that its contents lacked substance and foundation. Gaba said the narrative was from “people who are hell-bent” on using these matters for ulterior motives other than seeing justice done and rooting out corruption.

“Clearly, Compario is also playing to that tune. “It is in that context that the municipal manager has written a letter to them seeking clarity on this behaviour and requesting they withdraw their letter and publicly apologise,” he said.

– siphom@citizen.co.za

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