74% of Govt tenders go to officials, families

Three-Quarters of all Eastern Cape government contracts are awarded to companies owned by state officials and their families, a report tabled by Auditor-General Terence Nombembe revealed yesterday. ANC legislator Zolile Mrara said Nombembe had presented a synopsis of the provincial government’s expenditure trends at a closed meeting with MPLs yesterday, with recommendations for action to avoid poor audit outcomes. “[Nombembe] told us 74% of government work was secured by officials doing business with the government. It’s happening across all departments.” Of this, about two-thirds was channelled through companies owned by relatives of the officials, Mrara said.

Premier Noxolo Kiviet announced in a debate later yesterday, however, that a policy to break the link between public office and government business would be implemented soon. “The policy is already in its final stages. One will have to make a decision on whether to serve the public or become a businessperson,” Kiviet told the legislature yesterday. It was recently reported that the latest audit outcomes showed the province had been unable to account properly for more than R5-billion of its expenditure during the last fiscal year. This was the sum of irregular, unauthorised, fruitless and wasteful expenditure in 10 departments across the province. Most of the misspent amount was in the department of education, which logged R4.8-billion in irregular expenditure.

Education Department superintendent-general Modidima Mannya said an analysis by the AG in the 2009-10 financial year had shown that 299 education officials had traded with the department directly and were paid R63-million for services rendered. “Recently we had to turn down seven staff members who wanted accreditation as booksellers. They wanted to trade with the department directly. That’s how serious this problem is,” said Mannya. Mrara said he was unable to give comprehensive figures because the AG’s report did not include a breakdown. “The AG did not talk about figures so what we have done is to ask for a breakdown from all departments to see the extent of the problem.”

Addressing the legislature yesterday, Mrara urged Kiviet to act against this abuse. “We can’t have officials who view government as a meal – all one needs to do is bring his or her spoon. “We cannot allow that. We have oversight institutions here at the legislature. They must tighten the screws next year and deal with this. It is serious misconduct,” he said. Mrara said the greatest challenge was even though the provincial government had called on state organs such as the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) to deal with corruption, the unit was also complaining about lack of capacity. Kiviet told members that her cabinet had resolved early this year to formulate a policy that would force Eastern Cape civil servants to choose between being government employees or business people.

But Mahlubandile Qwase, a deputy director-general in the premier’s office, cautioned that the government would have to tread carefully to not violate the constitutional right of individuals to do business. “We have hired a company to look at gaps in the current legislation which can be tightened so that it’s not business as usual for these officials.” Kiviet said she also planned to tighten the screws on the performance agreements of senior managers, which could no longer expect to be treated as “pass one, pass all”.