Probe into home affairs deal
• Suspended director-general flags irregular spending in security tender
Mkuseli Apleni, the home affairs director-general placed on precautionary suspension, flagged R145m spent on security services by the department as potentially irregular expenditure.
Mkuseli Apleni, the home affairs director-general placed on precautionary suspension, flagged R145m spent on security services by the department as potentially irregular expenditure.
Business Day understands that an investigation is under way. Early indications are that the tender to provide security services at Department of Home Affairs offices nationwide could have been manipulated during the evaluation stage.
Home Affairs Minister Hlengiwe Mkhize, who was appointed at the end of March during the cabinet reshuffle, placed Apleni on precautionary suspension in September.
Mkhize is to brief the portfolio committee on home affairs in Parliament about Apleni’s suspension on Tuesday. Project manager Jackson McKay is the acting director-general in Apleni’s absence.
Apleni is challenging his precautionary suspension in court. He claims Mkhize suspended him over a dispute her son had with the department, but Mkhize has dismissed Apleni’s accusation as “delusional”.
In the department’s 2016-17 annual report tabled in Parliament last week, Apleni said that the department had incurred R75m in irregular expenditure in 2016-17 and R70.5m in 2015-16, largely as a result of security services procured by tender.
“The department appointed a firm of external forensic auditors and a report was issued, which indicated some irregularities during the evaluation of the tender. The department is in the process of finalising the investigation and appropriate action will be taken against any transgressors,” the report said.
As director-general, Apleni is the accounting officer for the Department of Home Affairs.
In his audit report on the department, Auditor-General Kimi Makwetu said home affairs was a defendant in various cases, which it was opposing.
Makwetu said the outcome of the matters could not be determined now and that the department had made no provision for potential liability in its financial statements.
“As disclosed … the irregular expenditure closing balance of R516m includes an amount of R146m incurred in current and prior years that was still under investigation at year-end,” said Makwetu in his report.
The R146m would not be immediately declared irregular expenditure as it was under investigation by the department, he said.
The security tender was opened for bidding in June 2014 and was awarded in November of the same year.
Sources who spoke to Business Day on condition of anonymity said the investigation into the R145m awarded in contracts for security was continuing. Up to 96 different companies had bid for the tender, which had been awarded to five or six different firms.
However, the names of the companies contracted to provide security services to home affairs offices nationwide could not be disclosed.
The investigation needed to establish whether any wrongdoing occurred and, if so, who was at fault among the companies in question and officials.
Portfolio committee chairman on home affairs Lemias Mashile said the developments at the department worried the committee, as its members had no reason to doubt that the department was being wellmanaged before.