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Flood funds

PUBLIC Works and Infrastructure Minister Patricia de Lille has expressed outrage at the risks identified by Auditor-general Tsakani Maluleke and her department’s Internal Audit Unit regarding the awarding of contracts related to the KZN flood disaster intervention projects.

The AG’S preliminary report has identified concerns related to contracts awarded to companies owned by the same director. Some were made to newly registered companies that had not traded with the department before. There were also awards made to service providers that do not exist on the government’s Central Supplier Database.

De Lille said the AG’S preliminary audit findings revealed that service providers were approached by departmental management using a deviation process where there was no competition among service providers and no market analysis done to assess price reasonability.

“The AG’S office also confirmed that the matter has been referred to the labour relations and legal services unit to investigate further,” she said.

“It is extremely disappointing that we continue to see such flags being raised on work where government is needing to respond to an emergency and bring about service delivery to people in need in a responsible manner.” | IOL