Board member fingered over irregular expenditure
ESKOM board member Sifiso Dabengwa has been named as one of the government employees whose company, Gijima Ast, was irregularly paid more than R25million by the Emfuleni Local Municipality.
Dabengwa has been in the employ of Eskom since July 31, 2007, and he joined Gijima as a non-executive director in 2016.
Gijima is an ICT company co-owned by multimillionaire Robert Gumede – a well-known financial backer of the ANC.
The confidential report of irregular expenditure amounting to more than R872m, also pointed out that the spouse of Gijima chief operating officer Moses Maphumuzana Nxumalo was working at the Department of Health.
According to the report, Gijima was appointed to provide the municipality with 20 cellphone contracts for standby purposes in terms of the appointment dated February 20, 2003.
“The contract is now 15 years and includes 3G and at some stage included telephones. No extension of scope/contract was issued but (the) service provider continued to provide different services from the original service procured and received payment from the municipality,” the report revealed.
It stated that by the end of June last year, the municipality paid R25 226 517.33. During the 2017/18 financial year, it paid Gijima R307355.47. It is due to pay R160 070.72 to bring the total amount to R25693943.52.
The report stated that the contract was in contravention of the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA) section 116 (1) (a) and (b) and 116 (3). It was also found to have been in contravention of section 84 of the Municipal Systems Act 32 of 2000.
In another chilling revelation, the report revealed that one of the directors of Dikopane Projects and Management, which was awarded a contract to supply and deliver fuel and lubricants, had a full-time job at the Department of Health. Shailendra Lala was named as the director of the company who has been in the employ of the Health Department since January 31, 2015.
Dikopane was appointed in November 1, 2017, through a competitive bidding for a period of 36 months.
The original diesel price was R10.83 inclusive of VAT, while the octane petrol price was R11. The starting date for the contract was October 24, 2017, and it ends on September 23, 2020.
The report showed that Dikopane had already billed Emfuleni Local Municipality from inception to June 30, 2018, more than R5.5m in just one financial year. The municipality is yet to pay them R1.6m.