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Millions wasted on audio-visual service providers at EC Legislature

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Dear Editor

The DA will request an urgent investigation into the Eastern Cape Legislature’s wasteful Information and Communication Technology (ICT) expenditure, following revelations that millions of rands are being squandered for audio-visual streaming during plenary sittings.

In response to questions I posed in the Legislature Oversight Committee (LOC), it was confirmed that R85,000.00 is being spent per day, per plenary sitting on audio-visual services because the Legislature has not completed an ICT upgrade for its chamber, and without the upgrade it has no functional audio or visual facilities.

The upgrades needed in the chamber, and one committee room, is estimated to cost R16 million, but the LOC were told that this upgrade is apparently unfunded.

The Secretary to the Legislature, Nomawethu Ngcakani, confirmed that the Legislature did not put these services out to tender but instead requested quotes and handpicked two service providers to do the job.

We have estimated that this has cost a shocking R2.975 million for a total of 35 plenary sittings during the 2023/24 and 2024/25 financial years.

The DA will request that the MEC for Finance, Mlungisi Mvoko, investigate why these critical upgrades are considered unfunded by the LOC, especially given that the Legislature underspent its capital budget by 11% in the previous financial year.

We will also demand answers on why these two specific service providers were selected to provide audio-visual streaming services during plenary sittings, at such an outrageous fee.

The ongoing wasteful and reckless expenditure on ICT service providers is entirely avoidable. The Legislature could easily eliminate these expenses by investing in permanent technology that would serve for years to come.

The DA will fight to ensure that harsh consequences are imposed on those responsible for this reckless expenditure which is squandering taxpayers’ hard-earned money.

Regards

Yusuf Cassim MPL
DA Chief Whip in the Eastern Cape Legislature

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