Outa says chronic delays and budget overruns at Mapulaneng Hospital reflect a wider pattern of corruption in state infrastructure projects.
The non-profit civil rights group, Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa), is calling on relevant authorities to investigate why many government infrastructure development projects take so long to complete.
Outa was commenting on the Mpumalanga government’s failure to complete the construction of Mapulaneng Hospital, which started in 2017.
Rising costs and missed deadlines
The government is accused of failing to meet the deadline to complete the facility in June this year, while reportedly spending about R3 billion, instead of the original budget of R2.5 billion,” said Outa CEO Wayne Duvenage.
“Every single project that is not completed on time or runs well over budget should be investigated by the authorities, including the Treasury. If they did so, they would find the culprits and take action.
“But they are often incompetent and fail to fulfil their duty to defend the nation against this gross maladministration and corruption.”
Corruption, political interference and mismanagement
Duvenage said corruption thrived in an environment of maladministration and usually overspending happened when the authorities failed to fulfil their oversight duties.
“More often than not, they deliberately look away and allow the overruns to happen and approve the weak excuses provided by the construction companies.
“These kinds of delays are unacceptable. We find many such cases in government infrastructure development projects, the most notorious of all being the Medupi and Kusile power stations.
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“Excessive overspending happens when projects are allocated to companies not fit to carry out the job. They outsource to other companies and claim contingency and other unforeseen overspend,” said Duvenage.
He said projects were not being finished on time for these reasons. Companies awarded contracts were often connected to those making the decision and they all corruptly feed off the funds.
Another reason is the incompetence of the contractors.
Another factor is deliberate ignorance of authorities who do not fulfil their oversight and project progress evaluations.
Call for auditor-general investigation
Themba Godi, the leader of the African People’s Convention (APC), who is a former parliamentary standing committee on public accounts chair, said the construction of Mapulaneng Hospital has seen chronic delays and budget overruns.
These overruns are due to incompetence, mismanagement and corruption. We have had numerous work stoppages because the workers were not being paid,” said Godi.
“With every delay, there are cost escalations and the main fight in all of this has been among ANC cadres fighting for a slice of the budget to loot.
“As the APC, we believe this requires an investigation by the auditor-general to identify specifically where the delays were, who caused the delays, what the reasons were and the financial implications of those delays must be borne by the officials who are responsible.
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“But this is not unique; it is a general norm and the net effect is not only a delay in service delivery, but an escalation in costs.”
‘Project is nowhere near complete’
The DA in Mpumalanga has vowed to submit parliamentary questions to MEC of health Sasekani Manzini and MEC of public works, roads and transport Thulasizwe Thomo to establish whether the province can afford the hospital, not only the completion of the building, but to get it furnished, staffed and operational.
“On an oversight visit this week, the DA found the project is nowhere near complete, but almost R3 billion has already been spent on construction,” the DA said.
“We also found out that the government has been struggling to pay the contractor on time, which has forced the contractor to go under the control of business rescue partners.
“The auditor-general also raised concerns about the impact on the project if the contractor’s application fails to move out of business rescue, as this will lead to more verification orders, increasing the overall cost.”
Mpumalanga department of health spokesperson Dumisane Malamule denied there was a problem.
“The information provided is inaccurate and, in accordance with the scope of work, the project is proceeding as planned and is expected to be completed in 2026.”
Malamule’s colleague, Chris Nobela, promised to supply the correct information, but did not.
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