Nelson Mandela Bay Communications

An urgent forensic investigation into all municipal leases will begin next week. This will include all relevant sub-directorates in both Corporate Services and Human Settlements. Both Directorates' Mayoral Committee Members, Cllr Bhanga and Cllr Biddulph, fully support this decision. A recent presentation by Corporate Services outlined the scale of chaos in metro leases, with thousands of leases still unaccounted for. A review of the Municipality's billing system indicates that there are supposedly some 2614 leases, of which 645 have been confirmed and audited. It is clear that negligence on the part of our predecessors, or possibly even fraud and graft, resulted in this disarray which requires this 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. Any lease register remained the intellectual property of the contractor when the contract was terminated. Having started from scratch, we are identifying alarming cases of inflated sub-letting agreements, illegal land use, account arrears, occupied properties without active leases and obstructive conduct from certain officials. While I salute the work of those officials who have been committed to this rescue project thus far, it is no longer just an administrative matter, but now one where serious audit and financial risk exist with a large number of leases still outstanding. I would like to see a fully audited, comprehensive lease register by the end of 2017. Any staff Member or service provider found to have taken bribes, interfered, obstructed or fabricated any process or system to do with leases, will face disciplinary action, and will be handed over to the police and Hawks for criminal prosecution. An audit firm has been selected from the supply chain database, and preliminary briefings will take place within the next few days. … [Read more...]