MyPE

Community Business Directory, Event Listings, News and Views from Gqeberha, Nelson Mandela Bay

PAIA application regarding drought disaster funding in NMB

By

Dear MyPE

The Democratic Alliance (DA) has launched a Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) application relating to the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality’s drought mitigation projects funded by the R200 million it received in Municipal Disaster Recovery Grant (MDRG) Funding.

The funding was received in the 2018/19 financial year and not a single cent has been spent to mitigate the water crisis, even though the average dam level of the City’s main supply dams stands at 22%.

The Municipality has indicated that the entire amount of R200 million has been committed to the Coegakop Wellfield project. The project is at a standstill as a result of appeals in respect of the Bid Adjudication Committee (BAC) award.

In our PAIA application, we are requesting all documentation regarding the tender award/s and contractual agreements between the Municipality and contractors relating to the Coegakop project funded by the MDRG.

The documents must include but not be limited to tender specifications, contractual agreements, price specifications, and procurement plans. It must also include details about any objections and /or appeals in respect of the final award.

We are requesting the Acting City Manager, Noxolo Nqwazi, to release any and all information pertaining to this tender that would ordinarily be made public if requested.

Should the information still not be forthcoming, I will be turning to the courts for the appropriate relief.

It has also recently come to light that the Metro only plans on spending R21 million of the R200 million received.

I have therefore instructed the DA’s Eastern Cape Shadow MEC for Finance, Retief Odendaal, MPL, to write to the Eastern Cape MEC for Finance, Mlungisi Mvoko, as well as Provincial and National Treasury to request urgent intervention to prevent the forfeiture of the funding.

The City is likely to forfeit this grant due to the fact that the Metro will have to make a second application for rollover of the funding. It is unlikely that national treasury will approve this application.

During this water crisis, the Metro simply cannot afford to forfeit the funding and the DA will not sit idly by and watch this happen.

Regards

Nqaba Bhanga
DA EC Provincial Leader

The following two tabs change content below.

Port Elizabethan

This author is a 'catch-all' for occasional articles and letters written to MyPE. The Author of each article can be found in the signature at the bottom of each individual article.