A controversial mayoral Christmas party six years ago, staged and funded by the Ngqushwa municipality, without proper procurement processes being followed, is back to haunt four former senior administrators at the municipality.
The four, who were nabbed by the Hawks in 2021, in relation to the party that took place in December 2019, were found guilty by the East London commercial crimes court on Wednesday.
The four had been charged for six counts relating to fraud, corruption and contravention of the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA).
This relates to the municipality spending almost R300,000 for the Christmas party without due supply chain management policies being followed.
The group, which includes former municipal manager Misiwe Mphahlwa, former acting CFO Tinus Matthysen, former director for corporate services Mkhuseli Mxekezo, and the then manager in Mphahlwa’s office, Busisiwe Mfunda, are set to be sentenced in October.
Mfunda and Mxekezo were found guilty of fraud and corruption, while Mphahlwa and Matthysen were found guilty for contravention of the MFMA, the National Prosecuting Authority confirmed on Thursday.
This after magistrate Sadia Jacobs found them guilty of tendering and approving the spending for the party without following procurement processes.
The party was arranged only a day before the actual event and all supply chain processes were circumvented.
It was the state’s case that on December 11 2019, Mfunda submitted to Mxekezo for approval, a request for procurement of goods and services to the value of R273,583, which was then approved by the corporate services head.
According to their charge sheet, the approval by Mxekezo came despite the fact that the event was going to be held a day later and the amount involved was more than R200,000, and therefore, must be by means of a competitive bidding process.
According to state advocate Lonwabo Poswa, Mxekezo had no written delegation as required by sections 79 or 106 of the MFMA and as such lacked the authority to approve the request for procurement of goods and services.
Mfunda went on to source the quotation requests from various service providers, and according to the charge sheet, “fictitiously created three quotations herself, without the involvement of the supply chain management office”.
The procedure to be followed when procuring goods or services, according to the Ngqushwa municipal supply chain policy, is that after the memorandum had been approved by the municipal manager, the end user department must prepare a requisition and then take the memorandum to the supply chain office to source the services or goods.
The court found there was no fair, equitable, competitive, transparent and cost-effective procurement for such goods and services.
“There was no competitive bidding or other system to ensure market-related values, and the procurement was not approved by any bid specification, bid evaluation, bid adjudication or approval committee of the municipality.
“The procurement, contracting and payment for such goods and services was accordingly irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure as defined in Section 1 of the MFMA.”
Matthysen was found guilty after he had effected payments to all the service providers that were sourced by Mfunda, without following or observing proper payment procedures, while Mphahlwa was found guilty of signing off on the dodgy payments, without the necessary payment orders.
NPA spokesperson Luxolo Tyali said on Thursday that the four were due for sentencing on October 3.
“What is more interesting in this case is that funds that were meant for service delivery were used for the entertainment of employees and community members, instead of what they had been meant for.
“As the NPA, we are working hard to safeguard public funds, hence we have intensified our efforts to ensure that those who violate the MFMA and the PFMA do face consequences.
“We now pray to the court to impose the appropriate punitive sentence, which will also deter other state officials from misusing public funds,” Tyali said.
NPA provincial head Barry Madolo welcomed the guilty finding.
None of the four, or their legal representatives, could be contacted on Thursday.
Ngqushwa municipality mayor Sanga Maneli declined to comment.
Daily Dispatch
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.