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AG blows whistle on R2m cellular deal

The Auditor-General has raised the alarm about a R1.890 million cellphone contract and a policy formulated by a service provider that were awarded by the Community Safety and Liaison Department without going on any competitive bid. The flouting of tender procedures for the 24-month MTN cellphone contract and the development of complaints management policy by Group Dynamics were among items that led to the department missing a clean audit by inches in 2015-16. In its submission to the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) on Tuesday, the department admitted flouting tender policies. It, however, got away with having sought three quotations, receiving two and then awarding the tender after the head of department approved the deviation in contravention of supply chain management procedures. “The department will ensure that the tender process is followed in future,” the department told Scopa.

In his report, AG Kimi Makwetu also found that the contract for developing complaints management policy by Group Dynamics to the tune of R4 512 121 had been awarded based on one quotation. Makwetu also found that the department’s newly-appointed state accountant has had salary to a higher notch than the stipulated minimum after negotiating the salary on recruitment from the private sector. But, Scopa chairwoman, Maggie Govender said the approved deviation for the cellphone and policy formulation tenders were problematic. Govender said the department should make use of the centralised database to procure services. “That is a mechanism where a lot of these issues are resolved,” she said. Govender also said the department, in light of serious budget constraints, should rather look into building its internal capacity than outsource services. “That is something you must develop: in-house formulation of policy,” she said. She, however, noted that the department had incurred accruals from 2014/15 that impacted on their budget in the following financial year.

“You have not made provision to the value of R6.42m, and that impacts on service delivery, because budget for the following year is used to pay those accruals “You now incurred in 2015-16 R3.4m that comes from your next budget,” Govender said. She called on the department to view the internal control raised by the AG as a cause for concern. “These are human resource management, policies and procedure, IT system control, action plan, risk management, internal audit and internal audit committee.”

Source: www.iol.co.za

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AG blows whistle on R2m cellular deal

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