Companies contracted by the Siyenza Group to roll out the R631-million sanitation project in the Amathole District Municipality (ADM) are unlikely to be paid for their work.
The municipality made this shock admission this week.
ADM, which recently terminated the lucrative sanitation contract with Siyenza Group, is now considering recovering some of the monies from Siyenza to ensure contractors are not short-changed.
The municipality has broken its silence on the controversial appointment of Siyenza Group to manage the VIP toilets project.
ADM spokesman Siyabulela Makunga said they were in talks with the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) and National Treasury to see how they could recover the state’s money from Siyenza.
“The municipality is still committed to the resumption and completion of the project,” Makunga said.
However, sub-contractors who spoke to the Saturday Dispatch at the beginning of the month alleged there was no work being done on the ground as some of them had not been paid.
The contractors alleged that ADM had promised to settle monies owed to them by June 30, but they had not yet received a cent.
“We have not been on site until we get paid as Amathole promised us. It’s been about two months since we have been on site,” said a contractor.
However, this was disputed by the municipality.
Makunga said: “No such undertaking was made to contractors. The ADM understands that certain contractors that were sub-contracted to Siyenza were not paid and are likely not to be paid now that the ADM engagement with Siyenza has fallen away.”
“The issue of recovering these monies from Siyenza in due course will also need to be considered.”
One contractor also said they were informed that some of the toilet structures would have to be demolished.
“We have a challenge that there is a new foundation slab that has been designed. Now we have the challenge of demolishing all the Contretex supplied toilets in Peddie and start with this new slab.”
The R631-million sanitation tender with Siyenza Group was terminated when it emerged that tax clearance documents submitted to the Municipal Infrastructure Support Agent (Misa) for a similar project in the Northern Cape had not been issued by the SA Revenue Service.
The ADM project was based on the Northern Cape tender using a section of supply chain management regulations which allow a state authority to contract a company participating in a project by another state authority without resubmission of all necessary documents, such as tax clearance certificate.
When follow-up questions were sent to the ADM this week asking how the municipal manager as the accounting officer planned to account for not doing due diligence when contracting Siyenza, the ADM said it would not respond.
“As you are aware, the ADM is unwilling to engage on issues in the media that are currently under investigation by the public protector. Hence our request that the public protector be allowed to do her work before comment is made on these issues.”
No pay for toilet contractors
The municipality made this shock admission this week.
ADM, which recently terminated the lucrative sanitation contract with Siyenza Group, is now considering recovering some of the monies from Siyenza to ensure contractors are not short-changed.
The municipality has broken its silence on the controversial appointment of Siyenza Group to manage the VIP toilets project.
ADM spokesman Siyabulela Makunga said they were in talks with the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) and National Treasury to see how they could recover the state’s money from Siyenza.
“The municipality is still committed to the resumption and completion of the project,” Makunga said.
However, sub-contractors who spoke to the Saturday Dispatch at the beginning of the month alleged there was no work being done on the ground as some of them had not been paid.
The contractors alleged that ADM had promised to settle monies owed to them by June 30, but they had not yet received a cent.
“We have not been on site until we get paid as Amathole promised us. It’s been about two months since we have been on site,” said a contractor.
However, this was disputed by the municipality.
Makunga said: “No such undertaking was made to contractors. The ADM understands that certain contractors that were sub-contracted to Siyenza were not paid and are likely not to be paid now that the ADM engagement with Siyenza has fallen away.”
“The issue of recovering these monies from Siyenza in due course will also need to be considered.”
One contractor also said they were informed that some of the toilet structures would have to be demolished.
“We have a challenge that there is a new foundation slab that has been designed. Now we have the challenge of demolishing all the Contretex supplied toilets in Peddie and start with this new slab.”
The R631-million sanitation tender with Siyenza Group was terminated when it emerged that tax clearance documents submitted to the Municipal Infrastructure Support Agent (Misa) for a similar project in the Northern Cape had not been issued by the SA Revenue Service.
The ADM project was based on the Northern Cape tender using a section of supply chain management regulations which allow a state authority to contract a company participating in a project by another state authority without resubmission of all necessary documents, such as tax clearance certificate.
When follow-up questions were sent to the ADM this week asking how the municipal manager as the accounting officer planned to account for not doing due diligence when contracting Siyenza, the ADM said it would not respond.
“As you are aware, the ADM is unwilling to engage on issues in the media that are currently under investigation by the public protector. Hence our request that the public protector be allowed to do her work before comment is made on these issues.”
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