Metro calls in forensic experts to probe ‘dodgy’ contracts

THE Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality will hire forensic investigators to probe three contracts it believes to be irregular.

Mayor Athol Trollip said yesterday that the city had uncovered dubious transactions which he believed should be scrutinised further by the forensic firms.

The contracts are with Mohlaleng Media, City of Champions and Milongani Eco Consulting.

This follows a series of articles published by The Herald since last year involving Mohlaleng Media and City of Champions and alleged irregularities pertaining to their contracts with the metro.

At a media briefing at City Hall yesterday, Trollip said the municipality would be appointing external forensic investigators to probe the alleged corruption linked to the contracts.

He said the municipality’s internal audit department did not have the capacity to conduct a forensic investigation, but would assist by pulling documents and providing details of the contracts.

Trollip was accompanied by acting corporate services head Vuyo Zitumane, internal audit director Bonnie Chan and councillors Nqaba Bhanga, Sebenzile Rafani and Dean Biddulph. Notably absent was deputy mayor Mongameli Bobani.

Trollip said the recent seizure of six laptops from municipal public health officials was linked to the Milongani contract.

He had discovered a few months ago that a Milongani consultant was working from the municipality’s public health offices.

“So [Milongani] was running its business out of municipal offices by a former municipal employee who was the point person of running these operations.”

Trollip said there were alleged irregularities with invoices, pricing structures and duplicate VAT charges as well as the inflation of contract values.

Auditing firm PricewaterhouseCoopers will lead the Milongani investigation.

Milongani director Mpho Nangammbi said the municipality had asked his company to deploy seven staff to the public health department because of severe staff shortages there. “Our contract allows for such deployment where necessary,” he said.

“And these were the only people who were based at the municipality. Otherwise, we have always operated from our office base at the Green House Building in South End.”

Nangammbi said the municipality had a long history of accusing black companies of inflating prices, and said the VAT duplication was a misunderstanding that had since been resolved with the city.

Meanwhile, the forensic investigators will also be looking into the R20.8-million in payments made to media and communications firm Mohlaleng Media.

They will also probe City of Champions for allegedly embellishing its documents on world record attempts and spending public money – about R21-million – on personal benefits.

Both Mohlaleng and City of Champions have previously denied any wrongdoing.

Trollip could not say how long the probes would take or how much it would cost, saying only that “wherever it takes us to, that’s where we’ll go”.