The Democratic Alliance in Buffalo City Metro wants the council to release progress reports of 16 controversial forensic and internal investigations.
The party believes some of them have been swept under the carpet despite adverse findings made against some metro officials.
In a motion tabled before council last month DA councillor Geoffrey Walton said in terms of the National Treasury guidelines all investigations commissioned should be tabled in council or in a committee of council and dealt with to a logical conclusion.
“Failing which, the costs associated with such investigations will amount to fruitless and wasteful expenditure.”
The party has demanded that acting city manager Nceba Ncunyana report back to council on what happened to investigations into a number of controversial projects, including alleged irregularities linked to grasscutting contracts and a waste management contract awarded around 2008.
Walton said Ncunyana should also report on the investigation commissioned by former BCM mayor Zukiswa Ncitha into a contract for the provision of black refuse bags.
“I don’t even think that the plastic bags investigation was presented in council. It is probably gathering dust somewhere, although the investigation was finished sometime ago.
“What we are saying is that we should know the progress that has been made in connection with these investigations so that we can close them off officially if that is the recommendation,” said Walton.
The party also wants to know what happened to alleged irregularities associated with contracts awarded for the 2010 World Cup activities.
“The DA requests set out the history of the investigation, key findings of the investigations, costs associated with the preparation of each investigation or forensic report, persons implicated in each individual report and actions taken against such parties identified, inclusive of criminal or civil actions implemented,” read the motion.
The party also demanded to know about progress made concerning matters related to criminal investigations referred to authorities and is expecting Ncunyana to present a reply to council at the end of the month.
BCM spokesman Sibusiso Cindi said yesterday he could not give a detailed response to questions put to him on Monday, but that “relevant authorities” were “going through each investigation trying to assist” with responses to the questions.
“It is our hope that you will be patient with this process as getting information on 16 investigations is time-consuming and before we supply you with the information we will have to be sure that private council information is not released. This will assist us to avoid future possible litigations.”
The Dispatch reported in 2014 that BCM ignored a damning forensic report by financial consultancy EY (formerly Ernst & Young) concerning R2-billion spent in the Make-a-Difference (MAD) campaign.
The campaign involved service delivery programmes over a three- month period. Another questionable expenditure amounted to R33-million for 2010 World Cup fan-parks.
Former mayor Zukisa Faku, mayoral committee members Sindiswa Gomba and John Badenhorst, and then-administrator Nozizwe Otola were named in the EY report, which probed tenders awarded during the tenure of former municipal manager Lulama Zitha. — mamelag@dispatch.co.za