Report on Ingquza Hill municipality reveals flawed processes, irregularities

Recruitment processes at Ingquza Hill municipality are so flawed that even a person who did not apply for a job was appointed as a truck driver.

Senior managers were allegedly appointed as directors despite not meeting the requirements for the top jobs.

These are findings of a report by co-operative governance & traditional affairs MEC Xolile Nqatha after an investigation into allegations of fraud, corruption and maladministration at the Lusikisiki-based municipality.

The investigation was conducted between 2018-2019. The report blamed former municipal manager Mluleki Fihlani for the alleged irregular appointments.

One of the directors got the nod while under investigation by the police for allegedly committing fraud while in the employ of Alfred Nzo district municipality.

The official was arrested three months after starting work at the Lusikisiki-based local authority. It could not be established what the status of the criminal case was at the time of writing on Tuesday.

Nqatha wrote that Fihlani and then mayor Pat Mdingi had objected to the investigation, with investigators only getting started when the administrator was placed on precautionary suspension and the politician recalled by the ANC.

However, Fihlani said they were not against the probe but wanted due processes to be followed. He told the Dispatch he had never been interviewed by the investigators.

In his report, which was discussed in council on Tuesday, Nqatha said the two directors only had diplomas instead of the required bachelor degrees.

“The council should investigate how the people were appointed without meeting the requirements as set by the council, and must further take disciplinary action against the MM for the irregular appointments.”

The two directors have not been named as they could not be contacted for comment.

Fihlani told the Dispatch that Nqatha’s predecessor, Fikile Xasa, had concurred with the appointment of the two directors.

He described the report as illegal.

“Had they interviewed the implicated people, they would have different findings. They had the findings even before they started their investigation.”

Nqatha also declared the appointment of a truck driver who had not even applied for the job invalid. But Fihlani insisted everything had been done above board.

Nqatha wrote that his team of investigators had uncovered serious cases of fraud and corruption, using an example of how two companies had bid to supply stalls for hawkers.

One company quoted R1.9m and the other R900,000. The lowest bidder won the tender.

But “upon payment, the lowest bidder was paid the R1.9m” as quoted by the failed bidder.

“When questioning the municipality, [the owner of the company that did not get the tender] was informed by [a senior manager] that the service provider did not calculate the tender correctly and they at SCM made calculations which amounted to the R1.9m.”

The municipality also failed to take away the signing and financial rights from an official whose acting term as the CFO had lapsed.

Between December 2018 and February 2019, the former acting CFO continued to have signing powers despite her acting term having expired.

Turning his attention to alleged unfair labour practices, Nqatha’s report found that Fihlani had written to an official instructing her to “disclose confidential information regarding her health”.

“To make matters worse, [the official’s] medical information was requested even from her medical doctor as she was perceived to have been lying about her health.” — DispatchLIVE