R1.9m to transport six pupils

Taxpayers forked out more than R30-million to transport single pupils from 331 different pickup points in the Eastern Cape at a cost of R91500 a child.

The worst case was for six pupils at a total of R1.9-million.

The exorbitant claims in the scholar transport programme were exposed by Auditor-General Kimi Makwetu in a report finalised in February.

The year under scrutiny was 2014, when the transport department announced that of the 94938 pupils who qualified for scholar transport, only 57176 could be transported – a shortfall of 37762 pupils.

Makwetu said the claims by service providers were possible because the provincial government had no policy to guide prices charged or who qualified to benefit from the programme.

In fact, the report states, when the provincial transport department took over running scholar transport from education in 2011, there was no clear guide on how to implement the programme.

The AG report found:

• A service provider was overpaid R1.4-million for picking up Clarkson Primary pupils for a return trip of 129km to Bloekomlaan in Humansdorp;
• The most costly trip was an annual claim of R4.36-million to transport 38 pupils from Krom River to Cradock;
• In East London, three pickup points were less than 1km apart. The AG found it would have been more economical to combine the pickup points, saving R21000;
• On the Tshandatshe route in Libode, the distance of a number of pickup points to Toli and Ngubezulu High School on the database was incorrect.

“The variance of these pickup points between the database and actual distances caused an overpayment to the transport service provider on the route of R328850,” the report said;

• A total of 33 pupils from Mount Pleasant pickup point in the Yellow Woods area, Fort Beaufort, were transported 59km return on the same route to six different schools.

“A combination of the route, if the pupils were transported together to the farthest school, would have saved R782478 per year,” the report said;

• At Kwandwe Game Reserve and Transit Camp route in Grahamstown, George Dickerson Primary school principal claimed a pupil failed due to his low class attendance because he relied on lifts because scholar transport was not prioritised and available from his home in Salem.

“At the same school, the audit identified a pickup point, Heather Towers , for which the scholar transport scheme paid R298977 in the 2014 academic year, but which could not be verified; nor could the allocated pupil be identified,” the report said.

Eastern Cape Equal Education head Lumkile Zani said there had been cases of children dropping out or being raped, mugged and murdered on their way to schools due to lack of scholar transport.

He said other departments, including public works, should be involved in the scholar transport programme. Zani, however, declined to comment on the AG's report saying he had not seen it.

Since scholar transport was moved from education to transport, thousands of school children in the Eastern Cape were left out of the programme, which had been marred by administrative challenges.

The Daily Dispatch reported on several cases where school children were left out of the programme despite calls from parents on transport and education to have scholar transport for their children.

Last year, the Dispatch reported that a 14-year-old girl was forced to perform an oral sex act on a male friend of the same age by a knifeman who then raped her. But within hours there were children walking the route from Chicken Farm to get to school in Mdantsane.

The AG has made several recommendations to the provincial government including that an investigation be carried out in the pick-up routes. Questions were sent to transport provincial spokesman Ncedo Kumbaca, but a response had not been received at the time of writing.

Eastern Cape education spokesman Loyiso Pulumani said the procurement and payment of transport service providers was not the department’s responsibility. “The department of transport would be in a better position to respond.

“We are meanwhile making arrangements to meet with the new management team of transport to revive the collaboration between the two sister departments,” Pulumani said. — zineg@dispatch.co.za/msindisf@dispatch.co.za