Red card – Union demands intervention from top

The National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu) in Limpopo is demanding of Premier Stan Mathabatha to act against Public Works, Roads and Infrastructure Department Head Timothy Seroka, who is accused of having allegedly contravened regulations pertaining to reimbursed official travel claims for June this year. The ultimatum for heads to roll and Mathabatha to intervene if wanting to avoid the wrath of the union in the province seemingly comes amid a reported attempt by the department head to have the paid claims regularised a week ago.
If Mathabatha failed to immediately act on the matter he would have to face the union in industrial action, warned Nehawu Provincial Secretary Jacob Adams in an interview with Polokwane Observer on Tuesday. It was learnt that if nothing came of it the union’s provincial structure intended to embark on such action within reasonable time.
Representatives of the union in Limpopo are seemingly headstrong about exposing what they believe to be fraud allegedly involving taxpayers’ money.
It was explained that government officials undertaking road trips in their vehicles registered on the departmental system had to get their itineraries approved beforehand and upon completing the trip had to submit claims against log entries for their vehicles once a month. Adams alleged that Seroka had submitted a total monthly claim of
R11 405,88 for trips undertaken during June this year for 1 790 km apparently travelled in his Mercedes-Benz ML350 while his vehicle was reportedly in for repairs during the specific period under claim.
Adams provided images of four smaller vehicles – including a Nissan Almera and a Renault Sandero – respectively parked in Seroka’s allocated bay on the departmental premises and that were suspected to have been used by Seroka during the period under scrutiny. He pointed out that the kilometres submitted for purposes of the claims against lesser engine capacity should have resulted in a drastically lower claim in that instance. Adams provided documentary proof of the payment approval of the claims submitted for R11 405,88 for the month of June 2019. In terms of the details of the claim it was submitted for use of a Mercedes-Benz ML350 with an engine capacity of 3,5L at an applicable tariff of 637,2 cents per kilometre.
He further referenced an apparent attempt by Seroka to have the claim regularised last Wednesday based on the HOD reportedly submitting a withdrawal of the June 2019 claims for official travel by stating that he had noticed the error, which was blamed on his personal assistant mistakenly not having “split the various vehicles” he used in the month of June this year as per his instructions. It was learnt that he would have cited that he apparently had not noticed the error when signing for the claim.
Adams said from Seroka’s attempt at having the matter reversed it seemed that he wanted the claim to be withdrawn to have it corrected and the amount of R11 405,88 that was paid to him to be deducted from his salary or his next claim.
Adams simultaneously alleged that Seroka got sniff of Nehawu’s intended action to expose alleged fraud, hence the move to have the payout regularised.
Adams mentioned that when Mathabatha had taken oath of office after the elections he underlined priorities, of which curbing of corruption was one. “As a result we’re calling on the Premier to take corrective steps because we can’t have an accounting officer entrusted with taxpayers’ money who allegedly defrauds the very same taxpayers as a result. If the Premier fails to take action against the HOD he will meet with us and our members in industrial action. We can’t tolerate this kind of behaviour by an accounting officer. He is the custodian of all public funds at the Department of Public Works. We take corruption in a very serious light,” stated Adams.
“It’s a red card to corruption,” he remarked.
In comment provided the departmental media liaison officer, Mamoshashe Mabotha confirmed that the payment has been made to the HOD, but that there was an error on the part of the personal assistant’s side when filing the travel claims for several trips undertaken by him. Instead of filing claims for the four vehicles registered in Seroka’s name on the system the capacity of the engine for the Mercedes-Benz was used to submit the overall claim, he added. Mabotha concluded saying the HOD has acknowledged the error because he signed the claim without double checking and pledged to pay back the money for the correct claim to be drafted. He finally undertook to verify the time frame for the money to be paid back.

Story: YOLANDE NEL
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