The disciplinary hearing of a senior Eastern Cape government official, who is allegedly among five officials responsible for procurement irregularities in a R35m tender to install computer software in Bhisho, has stalled because he “constantly pleads sickness”.
The Office of the Premier did not get value for money from the contract as only 20% of what was meant to be installed — drivelock encryption software — was delivered and installed in the department. Drivelock is computer software that protects and encrypts files for government computers.
This is according to an OTP report presented by director-general Marion Mbina-Mthembu to the portfolio committee on OTP in Bhisho on Thursday.
One official was fired, another was acquitted, a third was suspended without pay for two months and slapped with a written warning, the final verdict is yet to be delivered on the fourth official, and the disciplinary process has stalled for 10 months against the fifth official, who “constantly pleads sickness”.
The fired and suspended officials are appealing the verdicts, Mbina-Mthembu’s report states.
Premier Oscar Mabuyane set up an interview for the Daily Dispatch so Mbina-Mthembu could answer questions about the 12 projects.
But Mbina-Mthembu declined to name the officials and their exact job titles.
She, however, said the matter was in court and the Hawks had been involved.
She said the cases were with the National Prosecuting Authority, but would not provide case numbers for independent verification.
She said the alleged misconduct was conducted in 2013 and 2015.
Mbina-Mthembu said: “The tenders ranged from 2013 to 2015 — they’re all ICT procurement. One of them was a disaster recovery thing.
“A final verdict is awaited on the last employee.
“Two employees — one charged with dismissal and another with suspension — have appealed to the executive authority in line with the public service regulations.”
The report states that investigations on ICT assets previously reported that “less than 20% of what was meant to be installed was delivered and installed in the department” and that no training has because taken place for the department’s officials who would have used the assets.
MPLs did not have time to discuss the report and rolled it over to their next meeting.
In an unrelated item, UDM MPL Mncedisi Filtane asked Mabuyane to clarify whether the province was planning to have toll gates or e-tolls.
This was after Mabuyane announced at the provincial transport summit that they were mooting having toll gates on busy roads to make money to maintain roads.
Mabuyane said e-tolls would never “see the light of day in this province”.
The report also said the department had so far spent 57.3% of its total appropriated budget, achieving 64% of its target.
Earlier, the auditor-general’s Eastern Cape office briefed the portfolio committee on the audit report for the 2018/2019 financial year, which showed that the department had underspent its 2018/2019 budget by R133m on administration.
The report said irregular expenditure in excess of R208m from previous years had not been recovered, written off or condoned by the provincial Treasury.
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