Mystery surrounds how R175,000 was paid by Buffalo City Metro to a service provider without proper approval.
The money was paid to auditing firm SizweNtsalubaGobodo (SNG), which was handpicked after the city had deviated from normal tender processes in June. SNG was tasked with reviewing the municipality’s annual stock-take between June 22 and 24.
However, on the day the work should have started, no service provider had responded to an earlier advert and a deviation was requested.
In a letter dated July 24 to BCM demand management programme manager Albert Whittles, supply chain management (SCM) acting GM Nomandla Mxo demands answers on how the work commenced without proper quality controls. “Can I get reasons as to why the quotations [for the work] were not requested on the day [June 22]? This is a serious thing as this has been leaked to the media, and so I need the reasons to be stated in writing,” Mxo wrote.
Whittles responded saying he could not request quotations on the day as the deviation had not yet been approved.
“The second reason is that . . . the request was received late on Friday [June 22] for an event to take place on the next two days,” he said.
It now remains a mystery as who gave the go-ahead for the work and for payments to proceed without SCM approval.
More questions have been raised as to who requested the quotation dated June 22 from SNG if Whittles, a senior buyer for the municipality, did not.
The deviation was signed by Mxo on the day and work went ahead without metro manager Andile Sihlahla approving it.
The deviation request, seen by the Dispatch, was also signed by BCM head of governance and internal auditing Busisiwe Msauli.
Msauli is a former Raymond Mhlaba municipality internal audit manager.
The Dispatch understands that two Raymond Mhlaba employees were roped in to assist during the project.
Contacted for comment, Raymond Mhlaba spokesperson Cynthia Mokitimi said the municipality was not aware of this as the two staffers had not declared the work.
BCM spokesperson Samkelo Ngwenya refused to respond to specific questions on how a deviation was processed without approval from the accounting officer.
“Such matters are a subject of the internal system of checks and balances of scrutinising deviation procurements.
“And thus, commenting on matters that are subject of internal scrutiny may compromise our system of internal control and that may be a disservice to the professional relationship we have maintained with the service provider in question,” he said, adding that the metro was happy with the services rendered and payments were duly processed.
Questions sent to SNG spokesperson Sihle Cengimbo were not answered at the time of writing...