CFO Andile Dyakala alleges that management had awarded 16 "irregular" tenders worth R62 million.
A PowerPoint presentation prepared by Emfuleni local municipality CFO Andile Dyakala has alleged that, earlier in July, the municipality's council used the pretext of Covid-19 to award 16 “irregular” tenders worth R62 million through deviations to usual procurement processes.
According to TimesLIVE, Andile delivered his presentation at a meeting between the municipality’s officials and Gauteng co-operative governance MEC Lebogang Maile.
During the presentation, he accused municipal manager Lucky Leseane and supply chain manager Jason Mkhwane of approving the awarding of the tenders through deviations in contravention of the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA).
“The municipal manager approved the deviation without considering advice from the CFO as per section 81 of the MFMA. As per the standard operating procedures and practice notes, the deviation approved by the accounting officer was not duly considered by the Bid Adjudication Committee (BAC). The municipal manager approved the 16 deviations, which were recommended by the supply chain manager,” Andile said.
He added that the governance structures of the municipality have been compromised.
The presentation shows that officials had used Covid-19 as a motivation for deviating from normal procurement processes and “further refers to the reprioritisation of the municipal infrastructure grant as the reason for the deviation”.
Andile said that all of the 16 deviations, to the value of R62.2 million, must be declared irregular and concomitant consequence management action must be implemented to all officials involved in the approval of the deviation report.
He recommended that Leseane should “rescind all the letters of appointment associated with the irregular deviations” and that all the tenders should be advertised for 14 days.
Leseane has withdrawn the tenders.
