Durban — The eThekwini Municipality’s head of Electricity, Maxwell Mthembu, has been cleared of corruption which cost taxpayers more than R100 million in irregular expenditure.
Mthembu has been walking with a cloud over his head since last year when it emerged that a report compiled by the City Investigation and Integrity Unit (CIIU) found him to have been responsible for irregular expenditure alongside five senior officials, including the supply chain management head.
In a report, seen by the Daily News and recently tabled by the municipality’s financial misconduct board, Mthembu was cleared of any wrongdoing.
However, the board supported the findings that fingered the five officials and recommended disciplinary action against them.
The officials who cannot be named at the moment are senior managers. The tender, awarded in 2019, was for the inspection of high masts with a raising and lowering mechanism.
The investigation found that tender E9412 was awarded on March 12, 2019, with a contract value of R3 622 746. But as of February 4, 2021, the total spent on contract E9412 was R10 544 997, which amounted to an over-expenditure of R6 922 251.
The report also found that contract E9422 was awarded on April 18, 2019, with a contract value of R114 035 080 but as of February 4, 2020, the total spent on contract E9422 was R228 185 543 which amounted to an over-expenditure of R113 806 536.
“In our view, the report clearly identifies the implicated officials responsible for the irregular expenditure incurred in relation to both contracts.
“The head of the unit is not found to have been the cause for the over-expenditure. All he had to do was exactly what is recommended by the forensic investigators, which is to prepare a regularisation report,” read the report.
Mthembu is currently on suspension for an unrelated matter emanating from the recent strike by City workers affiliated with the SA Municipal Workers' Union (Samwu).
He was accused of failing to take action against the employees in his unit who participated in the illegal strike. He is challenging the suspension in the bargaining council.
Contacted for comment about his clearance, Mthembu said he was not even aware that he was implicated, since he was never investigated nor invited to make his presentation during the investigation.
One manager denied any wrongdoing, saying as a supply chain manager, he was not involved in the monitoring of budgets.
His job was to provide support to the unit which meant he was only involved in the sourcing or procurement of goods and services and not the operations and monitoring of budgets, he said.
“Once the contract is awarded, budget owners (line divisions), for example street lighting, run and control their daily operations, which include allocating work (budget) to contractors on a daily basis.
“The line departments were responsible for issuing work to contractors. It is their duty to check their budgets before issuing any work.
“Line departments issued work using job cards and not official orders. Orders were only requested when payment was due from SCM. The report states that JDE can be utilised to monitor expenditure. This is true, but who should do the monitoring?
“My duty schedule does not state that I should monitor budgets for the line department. There is absolutely no shred of evidence, a paper or email wherein I issued an order or even instructed anyone to issue an order before the work was done, which is the proper way.
“My section only assisted under pressure from contractors for payment when the work was already completed,” said a manager.
A second manager also denied responsibility for irregular expenditure, citing the same reasons as the first one.
He said as the chief bids administrator his job was providing support to electricity divisions which meant he was mainly involved in the sourcing/ procurement of goods/services and not the operations.
“It is not my duty to monitor contracts spend,” he said.
The third manager refused to comment, saying he would not comment on matters which involve his employer.
A fourth manager said he was not authorised to speak to the media.
The fifth manager asked who was calling but when he was told that it was the Daily News, he dropped the call and did not respond to the request for comment sent to him.
eThekwini Municipality spokesperson Gugu Sisilana said, “We do not make public statements about matters that are discussed in-committee because they are discussed in closed meetings to prevent them from being publicly discussed or tried in the court of public opinion.
“In the interests of natural justice and to avoid prejudicing the outcome of any disciplinary investigation, all disciplinary proceedings in the municipality are kept strictly confidential.
“The municipality does not initiate disciplinary processes via the media and will therefore not publicly discuss the outcomes of such processes.”
WhatsApp your views on this story to 071 485 7995.
Daily News