Security threats highlighted
● Damning report details intimidation of audit team in city
Armed small business owners barging into the municipal tender office and threatening staff, and auditors being warned to get bodyguards before probing the controversial R21m draincleaning tender.
This is the environment about 25 staff members from the auditor-general’s office had to operate in while auditing the Nelson Mandela Bay metro’s books.
A damning report to parliament’s standing committee on the auditor-general details the intimidation the team was subjected to in Port Elizabeth.
The auditors withdrew from the city after receiving a perceived threat in the form of an envelope containing a front page of the Weekend Post.
“From the beginning of the audit, the team has had remarks passed at them by metro officials,” the AG’s report said.
“When they requested information about the draincleaning tender, an official made a comment that they would require bodyguards if they want to audit that tender.”
Armed small business owners barging into the municipal tender office and threatening staff, and auditors being warned to get bodyguards before probing the controversial R21m draincleaning tender.
This is the environment about 25 staff members from the auditor-general’s office had to operate in while auditing the Nelson Mandela Bay metro’s books.
A damning report to parliament’s standing committee on the auditor-general details the intimidation the team was subjected to in Port Elizabeth.
The auditors withdrew from the city after receiving a perceived threat in the form of an envelope containing a front page of the Weekend Post.
“From the beginning of the audit, the team has had remarks passed at them by metro officials,” the AG’s report said.
“When they requested information about the draincleaning tender, an official made a comment that they would require bodyguards if they want to audit that tender.
“No official of the metro was willing to talk about the tender, and [the auditors] could not even identify a project manager to assist the audit team,” the AG reported.
In December 2018, the city allocated work to about 900 SMMEs to clean drains.
Dozens of small business operators later claimed they were never paid despite doing the work.
The project did not go through the normal supply chain management process.
Police believe the infighting among SMME operators over the drain-cleaning contract sparked a spate of hit killings in the city from January.
The AG reported it had been informed that between 10 and 12 people linked to the contract had been killed.
“The SMMEs constantly protest and congregate at the metro to demand the R500m that they believe they are entitled to as per mayor’s [Mongameli Bobani] speech,” the report said.
Bobani promised tenders worth R500m to SMME owners at the City Hall on October 4 — when he was facing harsh criticism from political parties who wanted him to step down as mayor.
He said the small businesses would get contracts worth R169m for 2019, starting in November.
This would be followed by tenders worth R143m in 2020 and, finally, a further R171m in contracts for the third year.
Bobani, who was ousted on Thursday after losing a no-confidence vote, had vowed that the SMMEs would be on site by November 1 — but this never happened.
The AG’s report said the SMME operators were so desperate to find out why they had not received any work that they “stormed the supply chain management unit at the metro armed with guns and threatened the SCM officials”.
“Fortunately, the audit team was not in the building at that moment, but were in the building next door.
“The auditors were told by the SCM officials that the SMMEs were informed that they are not getting the money because ‘the auditors are here’.
“In our opinion this places a target on the audit team,” the report said.
But it was the envelope with a copy of the newspaper that was the final straw.
“An envelope was found in the boardroom where the auditors are accommodated at the metro.
“It was addressed to the ‘Audit Manager, Audit-General’.
“Inside the envelope was the front page of the Weekend Post, dated Saturday October 19. Two articles were on this newspaper clipping.
“The first reflected the ... letter from National Treasury about the [Integrated Public Transport System] funds [the
National Treasury’s intention to recall the R3bn it had paid towards the bus system].
“The second related to a recent assassination of an excouncillor and a businessman linked to the SMME group in Port Elizabeth, the same group linked to the drain-cleaning contract.”
The team withdrew from the audit on November 4, fearing for their safety.
The report said the police crime intelligence unit had recommended that added security would be required if they were to return to the metro.
“We received a report back from SAPS crime intelligence and they recommended that our staff require improved security as the access controls and security at the metro offices from which we work is inadequate.”
After delegates from the AG’s office met Bobani and another senior official, the metro undertook to accommodate the audit team in the safety and security building, which was now being assessed, the AG’s report said.
The audit is taking place in East London in the interim.
Meanwhile, DA MP Jan de Villiers wrote to police commissioner Khehla Sithole on Wednesday, calling for improved security to be placed around the audit team.