The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Mpumalanga has written to the offices of both the Public Protector and the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) requesting them to investigate the Department of Public Works, Roads and Transport for using over R10 million of taxpayers’ money paying a contractor for work that was never done.
A 2023/2024 recent report of the Select Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) made a damning revelation that the department incurred fruitless and wasteful expenditure amounting to R10 555 000 for the first time in 3-years, due to payments made to a contractor for work not performed.
The payment in question relates to the upgrade of Road D4407 between Hluvukani and Timbavati in the Bushbuckridge Local Municipality. The department reported to the Select Committee that the project was planned for a duration of 20-months. The DA wants the department to be investigated on why the contractor was paid the over R10,5 million even though the contract was terminated due to poor performance.
The Department told SCOPA that the matter is under Internal Audit for investigation and to determine the course of action and a recovery process. But the DA does not agree that the investigation should be handled internally: how can the department simultaneously be the accused party (suspect), the individual presenting the case against themselves (prosecutor), and the person making the final decision (judge)? We want the matter to be investigated externally by the SIU and the Public Protector.
The DA also wants the Department to be investigated for writing-off/condonation of over R892 million out of the R1.2 billion of Irregular Expenditure emanating from the 2023/2024 financial year. The Department told SCOPA that the R1.2 billion of Irregular Expenditure resulted for the following factors:
- Deviation from procurement processes due to delays and challenges on-site the Mpumalanga Parliamentary Village
- Deviation from procurement processes due to increased demand for scholar transport services
- And accepting quotations from prospective suppliers who did not submit declarations for goods and services valued at R500 000 which were procured without inviting competitive bids.
Surely Mpumalanga residents cannot be expected to just accept that over R892 million worth of Irregular Expenditure was written-off without a thorough investigation into the matter. Surely, the department of Public Works can develop internal controls, mechanisms and systems to fast track the construction of the Parliamentary Village and other delayed projects in the province to curb variations and abnormal deviations from normal procurement processes.