Municipality to start forensic investigation into all leases

A FORENSIC investigation into all municipal leases will begin next week, Nelson Mandela Bay mayor Athol Trollip said.

The investigation will include all relevant sub-directorates in both the corporate services and human settlements.

“A recent presentation by corporate services outlined the scale of chaos in metro leases, with thousands of leases still unaccounted for,” Trollip said.

“A review of the municipality’s billing system indicates that there are supposedly about 2 614 leases, of which 645 have been confirmed and audited.”

It was clear that negligence on the part of their predecessors, or possibly even fraud, resulted in the disarray which required the coalition government’s urgent intervention.

Moreover, the municipality could be losing or being fleeced out of possibly millions of rand a year. “Having previously been contracted out with no oversight, management of the metro’s leases was allowed to collapse into mayhem,” he said.

“Having started from scratch, we are identifying alarming cases of inflated subletting agreements, illegal land use, account arrears, occupied properties without active leases and obstructive conduct from certain officials.”

Trollip said he would like the municipality to have a fully audited, comprehensive lease register by the end of the year.

“Any staff member or service provider found to have taken bribes, interfered, obstructed or fabricated any lease process or system will face action, and will be handed over to the police and Hawks for criminal prosecution,” the mayor said.

An audit firm has been selected from the supply chain database.