Roads Agency Limpopo welcomes investigation on irregularities

Roads Agency Limpopo (Ral) welcomes the recent proclamation mandating the Special Investigation Unit (SIU) to investigate alleged tender procurement irregularities at the agency.
A document made available to Polokwa­ne Observer highlights that the agency incurred irregular expenditure amounting to R1,6 billion between 2007 and 2017 which prompted the Democratic Alliance (DA) in Limpopo as early as 2016 to request the Office of the Auditor-General to conduct a forensic audit.
In a written reply to the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa), Ral indicated that in 2007/8 financial year they have incurred irregular expenditure amounting to R3 098 816,53 while R10 200 396,34 was incurred in 2008/9, R1 766 836,08 in 2009/10, R46 685 180,70 in 2010/11 and an amount of R40 205 356,39 was incurred in 2011/12. The irregularities continued in 2012/13 where the agency incurred R18 509 356,39 followed by an amount of R403 360 981,55 in the 2013/14 financial year, R703 487 771,40 was incurred in 2014/15, R293 351 92,16 in 2015/16 and an amount of R135 070 968,93 was incurred in 2016/17.
The agency in a written reply highlighted reasons for irregular expenditure which includes non-compliance with the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA), companies not submitting their original tax clearance certificates, non-compliance with supply chain management regulations, and tenders being allocated without following the proper procedures.
It is alleged that Ral’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) has allocated tenders worth more than R6 million to his wife and wife’s relatives’ company without them being advertised and without the CEO declaring his conflict of interest. During the 2017/18 financial year, Ral was allocated R805 million for road infrastructure but it is alleged that the parastatal incurred an overspending of over R160 million on its budget before applying for a conditional grant of R103 million.
The DA claims that the whistle blower highlighted the procurement of legal services from a company without following procurement processes to the value of about R2 million. DA Provincial Leader Jacques Smalle emphasised that a whistle-blower went on to claim that Ral has overcommitted its 2018/19 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) budget by almost R900 million.
Ral’s Head of Communications, Maropeng Manyathela in a media release stated that Ral comes from a painful past, where it was effectively put under administration by cabinet between 2011 and 2014, as the erstwhile Limpopo Department of Roads and Transport was one of the five provincial government departments affected by that watershed intervention.
“However, since the appointment of the Board of Directors under the leadership of Matome Ralebipi in 2015, the intervention and commitment by the Board and executive management of the agency, particularly to clean governance and supply chain management, has been commendable,” Manyathela said and added that Ral has been receiving improved audit opinions from the Auditor-General of South Africa year after year since and is targeting a clean audit opinion for the financial year (2017/2018) under review.
“Internally, the agency has dismissed several senior officials in supply chain management and some of those are challenging those outcomes in the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) and the courts. However, it is worrying when desperate people under various guises are feeding opportunistic political parties rehashed information of historic irregular expenditure which predates the current leadership of the agency,” Manyathela said.
In the Scopa report, Ral named the officials who were dismissed as Richard Rikhotso, former acting General Manager for Engineering, Sam Lekganyane, Head of Supply Chain Management, Kgotlo Rabothata, former Chief Financial Officer, and Batho Mokhothu, former Executive Manager for Engineering.
“To reiterate, no individual is bigger than the agency, and Ral will welcome the outcome of an independent probe to improve internal controls as it continues to root out bad apples and other creative incidents of corruption that may have circumvented and compromised our internal supply management policies, including collusion and sharing of sensitive information with potential tender bidders,” Manyathela concluded.

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BARRY VILJOEN
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ENDY SENYATSI
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