Daily Dispatch
Council careless with our money
THE attempt to brush off Buffalo City Metro’s irregular spending of almost R92-million in nine months of the current financial year by referring it to the council’s municipal public accounts committee (MPAC) for “further action” is unacceptable.
What has the MPAC being doing for the past nine months if it was unaware of irregular spending of more than R10-million a month? Just what “further action” can be expected if nothing has been done to date?
There is also the somewhat disingenuous spin that “irregular spending” is simply a technical matter of not following supply chain management (SCM) rules to the letter and that the money is not necessary wasted, misspent or stolen.
How is this known if only referred to the MPAC now? What investigations have already taken place to establish this fact, and why have the consequences of these investigations not been made public?
The idea that public money becomes a council’s private property and that any investigation or information on “irregular spending” is not for public consumption is legally false. It is our money and we demand to know what is happening with it.
BCM is unfortunately not alone in such “irregular spending”. Most other municipalities and provincial government departments in our region are equally guilty.
Just one BCM example illustrates how “irregular spending” is more than just about following SCM rules – the reconstruction of Fleet Street, a project BCM assured us was managed very strictly within SCM rules.
This project started back in August 2013 at an estimated cost of R84-million, extending almost exactly 1.5km from Pontoon Road to Fitzpatrick Road, and was supposed to be finished by August 2015.
The job was awarded to a contractor with a “questionable track record” who a year earlier had been fined R60 000 by the Construction Industry Development Board for falsifying financial statements and misrepresenting its relationship with a reputable quantity surveying firm in an apparent attempt to qualify for lucrative projects.
That didn’t make any difference to those charged with spending R84-million of our money in strict compliance with SCM rules.
By April 2014, when upper Fleet Street between Currie Street and Fitzpatrick Road (300m) should have been completed, it was a absolute mess and private businesses ruined.
By January 2015 BCM confirmed the contract had been cancelled and the completion date extended to December 2015 – but nothing was said about any consequences to either the contractor or officials involved in awarding the contract. Our money doesn’t matter.
To date, after a third contractor took over, the works have crawled to the Oxford Street circle – a total distance of one kilometre in four years at an estimated cost of around R125-million.
By way of comparison, the 80km Gautrain project, which involved bridges, tunnels and 10 stations, took six years to complete at a cost of R25-billion – R310-million a kilometre.
How can this be? Where is the consequence management from our council who should be looking after our money?