Municipal fraudsters still go unpunished

The wastage, maladministration and fraud crippling South Africa’s municipalities remains largely unpunished, even when criminal charges are brought against those involved.

This week, National Director of Public Prosecutions Shamila Batohi told the standing committee on public accounts that only nine of the 293 cases that had been referred to the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) had been finalised in court.

“And in the cases where officials were sentenced, the punishment was so light that it did not actually have an impact.”

Batohi and the head of the SIU, advocate Andy Mothibi, were giving feedback to the parliamentary watchdog committee about the progress that had been made over the past year with regard to the criminal prosecution of municipal officials and managers responsible for misdeeds such as irregular expenditure, the unlawful acquisition of goods and services, and fraud in relation to tenders.

“I have to be candid. These cases have progressed painfully slowly in the manner they have been finalised and the decision whether to prosecute or not. It is abysmal,” Batohi said.

“It is a poor success rate. As a matter of fact, the word ‘success’ shouldn’t even be used.”

The municipalities currently being investigated include:

. Mopani District Municipality in Limpopo: for, among other things, alleged tender irregularities and the failure to pay R120 million that the municipality did not use back to National Treasury;

. Mbhashe Local Municipality in the Eastern Cape: for alleged irregularities in relation to the purchase of vehicles;

. Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality in Gauteng: for irregularities in the manner that building work was subcontracted;

. Endumeni Local Municipality in KwaZulu-Natal: for tender irregularities;

. Moretele Local Municipality, also in KwaZulu-Natal: for the contracting of IT services; and

. Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality: for the alleged irregular purchase of vehicles and allegations of wrongdoing in relation to repairs and maintenance work to fire stations and the procurement of office furniture.

The SIU’s Mothibi said that in addition to investigating municipal officials, the unit had also looked into the service providers that did business with the municipalities involved as they tended to move to the next municipality, and the next, after the one they were doing business with had been plunged into financial chaos.

Batohi told MPs that her unit was not properly equipped to handle the plethora of cases that had been referred to it, citing the following as an example: “In the Eastern Cape, where there is so much corruption, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) only has two specialised commercial prosecutors.”

Responding to a question from DA MP Alf Lees, Batohi said her budget for the present financial year was just under R4 billion.

Lees told Batohi that the NPA’s low success rate had to be partly ascribed to its inadequate budget and the fact that the unit could no longer appoint prosecutors. “To think that we just gave the SABC a bailout of R4 billion. We give institutions [such as the NPA and SIU], which are absolutely critical to combating corruption, less than we give a state entity like the SABC. It’s unconscionable.”

Batohi recommended that the SIU and the NPA prioritise municipalities where officials had contravened the Public Finance Management Act and the Municipal Finance Management Act. “It is much easier to prosecute these kinds of offences. And once these officials are found guilty, they cannot be employed by the state again.”

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