The Hawks are to swoop on Endumeni Municipality.
The elite crime unit will conduct a forensic investigation to probe long-standing allegations of bribery, corruption, the illegal sale and rental of RDP houses, fraudulent compensation claims from Land Affairs by municipal officials, irregular/illegal awarding of tenders and irregular expenditure. The announcement was made at last week’s Council meeting where Speaker, Bongiwe Mbatha, welcomed the investigation.
“We are a transparent Council. Let the Hawks come and, if need be, prosecute those deemed to be guilty of transgressions, regardless of political affiliation. We have nothing to hide and want to promote a clean administration,” she told the Courier in a separate interview.
“Their investigators will have access to everything they may require. The forensic audit does not cost us a cent so, of course, we welcome it. We want to clean up and be free of corruption – that is what every voter wants.”
Former Speaker, SB Mdluli, said he also welcomed the probe but wanted the specifics of the investigation as ‘there have been other reports into corruption etc. which this Council has never seen’.
Acting municipal manager, Desi Padayachee, said the Hawks will consider all other investigations done by private auditing firms and by the Provincial Government. “The many acting municipal managers who came and went did not table these previous reports.
“Hence, this investigation will get to the bottom of everything so we can move forward with our task of service delivery.” It was also revealed to the Courier that most of the Councillors subsistence and travelling (S and T) allowance of R160 000 has been blown – barely three months into the new budget year.
The allocation was made on July 1 and is supposed to last until June 30, 2017.
However, Speaker Mbatha said she noted with concern that an Aids conference in Durban in July had taken up nearly R60 000. Other S and T claims made mean that more money will have to be allocated to last until the new budget. Speaker Mbatha said Council will have to look at cutting S and T to the minimum.