The SA Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) has expressed concern about the Johannesburg Roads Agency’s (JRA) failure to act against officials implicated in a report on more than R418m in irregular spending five years ago.
The report by auditing firm HTB Consulting, which Business Day has seen, said some procurement processes the agency relied on in awarding contracts to service providers for infrastructure projects — including the repair and rehabilitation of roads and bridges during the 2018/2019 financial year — contravened the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA).
In a media briefing in Johannesburg on Thursday, Samwu Gauteng secretary Mpho Tladinyane said that because no action was taken against those implicated the Cosatu affiliate had written to executive mayor Thapelo Amad and acting city manager Bryne Maduka demanding that “disciplinary action be taken against all employees identified” in the audit report.
Samwu is the largest local government trade union.
“Given the above, we will be affording the city an opportunity to investigate all these allegations. If they fail to do so they will be complicit in the fraud and corruption within the JRA, and as such, the union will be left with no option but to lay criminal charges in terms of Prevention of Organised Crime Act,” said Tladinyane.
The JRA is an entity of the City of Johannesburg and falls under the transport portfolio now led by Patriotic Alliance councillor Kenny Kunene.
On Thursday, Kunene said: “I watched the [Samwu] press briefing ... I’m three weeks into the job and as such I have not seen the report. They [Samwu] have not come to me to brief me on the report. Let me go and be briefed by officials on these reports and once we familiarise ourselves we will be able to answer.”
Kunene said he had already instructed JRA acting CEO Louis Nel to brief him on the matter on Friday morning. “ I would have loved it if Samwu had taken me into their confidence to brief me before going to the media.”
The audit report stated that JRA officials “who either supported, recommended and approved the appointments [of service providers] that led to the transactions deemed to be irregular, may have committed an act of financial misconduct as defined in terms of Section 172 (1) and/or (2) of the MFMA, in that, their actions had led or caused the JRA to incur irregular expenditure to the value of R418,702,718.96”.
The auditing firm recommended the JRA institute disciplinary measures against the officials for their roles. It also urged the utility to ensure that it complies with the legislation and relevant regulations applicable to its business operations.
The report called for JRA’s internal audit unit to perform a compliance audit on all high-value procurement processes, especially those done through a “deviation from procurement process”.
It recommended that the roads agency subject all contracts to vetting by its legal unit.
Former JRA CEO Selemo Monakedi, in correspondence with then transport MMC Nonhlanhla Makhuba dated December 4 2020, promised to act on the report. “As recommended by the internal audit investigation report, the entity will institute disciplinary measures against the officials implicated by the report,” Monakedi said.
Some say this was not done. In fact, one of the officials named in the report was appointed acting CEO in March 2022 after Monakedi’s resignation. The utility did not say why Monakedi resigned.
Update: March 2 2023
This story has been updated with more information.
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