An explosive report has revealed KwaDukuza municipality spent R3,92 million of ratepayer money investigating the printer fraud case spanning more than two years.
Of the four senior KDM officials who were investigated for their alleged involvement in the irregular procurement of photocopying machines for the municipality in late 2016, three have been cleared of all charges.
This in-committee item was tabled in council on April 30.
However, the Democratic Alliance believes the matter has been debated in the public arena for a long time and the public is entitled to its finding and recommendations, so went public on the matter.
The fourth official, KDM chief operating officer Mandla Manzini, who reports directly to the municipal manager and was acting municipal manager at the time, pleaded guilty to gross misconduct and negligence in contraventions of the Municipal Finance Management Act.
His punishment has been slammed by the Democratic Alliance as a “slap on the wrist”.
Manzini failed to follow proper procurement procedures which resulted in the irregular signing of the printer contract that escalated municipal printer costs from R30 000 per month to over R300 000 per month.
Following the lengthy forensic investigation, Manzini has been issued a written warning and barred from acting as municipal manager for one year.
He was further ordered to attend a training course to better prepare him to carry out his responsibilities associated with senior management.
Executive director of corporate services, Sithembiso Kubheka, the official who chaired the tender adjudication committee that took the decision to award the irregular tender and initiated the procurement process, was also cleared of any wrongdoing.
The third official involved in the investigation, Muzi Sithole served as a member of the tender adjudication committee that awarded the bid to photocopying company Fintech and Skillful. Sithole was charged with gross negligence and dereliction of duty but was found not guilty.
Charges of gross negligence were also brought against KDM’s chief financial officer, Shamir Rajcoomar.
Also read: KwaDukuza municipality named one of the best performing municipalities in KZN
According to the report, Rajcoomar was charged with failing to take reasonable measures to ensure proper management of municipal accounts for the period December 2016 to May 2017. A second charge was also brought against the CFO for failing to put systems in place to detect the irregular debit orders.
The presiding officer at the hearing found Rajcoomar not guilty of all the charges and ruled that he did not commit any serious act of financial misconduct.
It is unclear why Rajcoomar was charged with gross negligence as his department detected the irregularity and brought it to the attention of Rajcoomar who red flagged it to the municipal manager with the recommendation to initiate an internal audit.
The contract had been passed through the legal services department and signed off by the municipal manager. Nine months after the signing of the agreement, Rajcoomar was successful in obtaining a court order to reverse the debit orders and subsequently was able to recover all of the R1.4 million paid over to the printing company.
The contract to supply office printers and to service the machines between printing company Skillful and Fintech and the municipality was unlawful as Fintech had not tendered and as a result the contract was not awarded through a competitive public bidding process, as required by law.
The irregular three-year contract would have resulted in a loss of over R10 million of public funds.
However the “slap on the wrist” punishment for Mandla Manzini has been slammed by Democratic Party caucus leader Manoj Singh, who said there had been clear intention to defraud the municipality.
“The findings are unacceptable. The DA had initially suggested this whole saga could have been dealt with the internal audit committee free of charge. The municipal manager was cautioned regarding terms of reference taking into consideration the protracted nature of the case with huge financial implication,” said Singh.
Approached for comment KDM director of corporate communication Sifiso Zulu said the matter was in-committee and could not be discussed.
Be the first to receive breaking news straight to your device with our newly launched push notifications! Simply visit our website and click on the icon shown above.
Do you want to receive news alerts from The North Coast Courier via WhatsApp? Send us a WhatsApp message (not an sms) with your name and surname to 061 718 4438.
Please read our WhatsApp broadcast list disclaimer.
Join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
