Public Works in major graft purge

A DOZEN Mthatha Public Works officials could face criminal charges.

The 12 are currently under internal investigation over R5-million paid to service providers.

There is no evidence of the services being rendered.

Public Works Minister Thulas Nxesi revealed the probe during a recent ministerial imbizo, where he also announced that lifestyle audits would be conducted into some officials who “appear to be living beyond their means”.

Three officials have already been dismissed for gross misconduct and corruption.

One was found guilty of receiving payments from a service provider.

Another was found guilty of demanding R600 000 to facilitate payment of a service provider’s invoice. The third pleaded guilty to accepting R20 000 from a service provider that subsequently won a tender.

Nxesi said that of the 319 cases reported between 2010 and 2015, 201 had been finalised. Of these, 183 were followed through with disciplinary action, resulting in eight officials being dismissed. Attempts are under way to recover R304million in eight civil matters.

“A total of 39 matters have been referred to the special investigating unit [SIU] for investigation.

“Seventeen of those investigations have been concluded and reports issued,” said Nxesi.

He said the SIU had referred 19 cases to the SAPS.

The minister also revealed that the department’s anti-corruption unit was conducting investigations across several regional offices into the awarding of day-to-day maintenance contracts totalling R217million.

More officials are being investigated for petrol card abuse after the department discovered widespread use of petrol cards to fill privately owned vehicles in exchange for cash.

Another sore point to be looked into is that of properties being irregularly transferred.

“As part of the Operation Bring Back (OBB) Campaign, 10 properties with a value of R15-million have been identified, suspected of having been irregularly transferred.

“Processes are under way to recover these properties. [Public works] will also conduct detection reviews on all state properties disposed of, going back 10-20 years, to ascertain whether due process was followed.

“[Public works] will promote the use of the public service commission anti-corruption hotline for the duration of the project – which the OBB Unit will monitor,” he said.

No response to queries had been received by printing deadline.