North West municipality awarded R25m contract over the phone, SIU reveals

Ditsobotla Local Municipality offices in Itsoseng.

Bongekile Macupe/News24

The Ditsobotla Local Municipality irregularly appointed a service provider via phone for a R25-million generator contract during March 2020’s Covid-19 crisis.The SIU found inflated generator prices and payments for incomplete work,resulting in wasteful expenditure.MPs and the SIU labelled the actions as criminal,with disciplinary referrals made but no action taken against implicated officials.The Ditsobotla Local Municipality in the North West granted a service provider a R25-million contract over the phone for the supply of generators for a pump station.

It was only much later that the municipality attempted to “rectify” the situation by establishing an emergency contract.

Until then,no formal contract or appointment letter had been issued.

Despite these glaring irregularities,the service provider submitted invoices and received payment for work that was not completed.

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This was revealed by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) during its briefing to Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) on Wednesday.

The Ditsobotla Local Municipality has faced ongoing challenges with service delivery and governance,attributed to political infighting.

At one point,the municipality was simultaneously led by two mayors and two speakers.

The SIU’s advocate,Victoria Mdlalose,who presented the matter to the MPs,said this was done by the Ngaka Modiri Molema District Municipality on behalf of Ditsobotla,resulting in fruitless and wasteful expenditure.

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READ | ‘Ditsobotla is a crime scene’: North West’s troubled municipalities face fresh scrutiny

According to Special Tribunal papers,the saga played out in March 2020,at the height of the Covid-19 disaster.

Mdlalose further revealed that the generators’ prices were inflated from R250 000 to R500 000.

According to Mdlalose,the matter is currently at the Special Tribunal for civil litigation,and the SIU has made disciplinary referrals for implicated officials.

However,no action was taken against the officials at the time,while the municipal managers remained in their roles.

MPs described the matter as “criminal”.

EFF MP Veronica Mente said:

Appointing a service provider over the phone – that’s straight up criminal; it’s not done,that’s a criminal offence. That person should be behind bars.

Mente said she believed there was collusion between the municipality’s officials and the service provider.

SIU acting boss Leonard Lekgetho said he fully agreed with Mente that this was pure criminality,“and I think the whole thing was designed in order to syphon money from the municipality”,he said.