IN its crackdown on fraud and corruption within its ranks, eThekwini Municipality recently arrested two employees in the City Fleet Unit, demonstrating that it will not tolerate the unauthorised use of vehicles, resources and corruption.
The first case involved an employee allegedly syphoning fuel by filling the vehicle’s tank on numerous occasions each day.
The City’s Metro Police Dog Unit, together with City Fleet officials conducted an investigation which led to the employee’s arrest and dismissal.
Dieter Meyer, manager of Vehicle Investigations in conjunction with Captain Beavon of the Durban Metro Police Dog Unit were made aware of the fuel syphoning and planned an operation whereby they watched the movement of the vehicle and when the vehicle went to locations where the fuel syphoning was suspected, they moved in and arrested the employee.
Another case involved an employee who set up a bogus hijacking incident. He had used the council vehicle outside the boundaries of the municipality without authorisation. He crashed the vehicle under the pretence that he was saving himself from hijackers. Upon investigation, it was found his version of the story did not match that of the vehicle tracking reports. A criminal case was subsequently opened.
City Fleet Unit Head, Malcolm Joshua, said: “In cases where employees are found committing any criminal offence, the employee will be disciplined internally and criminal charges will be instituted against them.”
The unit’s vehicle monitoring system installed in all municipal vehicles has enhanced fleet operations and improved customer service, while maintaining cost efficiency.
Through the tracking of vehicles the unit is able to curtail fuel wastage due to excessive speeding and idling, the misuse of vehicles for private purposes and has assisted in the protection of employees during hijackings and accidents.
Every municipal vehicle is fitted with a tracking device which is monitored live at the unit’s control centre. This data is recorded and can be accessed at a later stage for investigation purposes.
Recently the system helped in the arrest of two employees found to be syphoning fuel and abusing the council vehicles.
In the last financial year City Fleet has dealt with three cases of fuel theft, in which eight employees were arrested together with four civilians who purchased stolen fuel. Six employees face disciplinary hearings, one employee was dismissed and one employee has resigned.
The municipality urges all citizens to help curb the abuse of council vehicles by reporting any suspicious activity or bad driver behaviour by calling 0800 C-Fleet (235338).
