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Eastern Cape transport department has blown absurd amounts of money on taking some kids to school, while 40% of pupils aren’t assisted at all
The Eastern Cape department of transport paid a taxi company R1 823 a day to drive one pupil to and from school in 2014.
This shocking figure is contained in a damning performance report of the province’s pupil-transport scheme undertaken by Auditor-General Kimi Makwetu.
The report, which does not name the service providers, reveals that the service provider travelled 113km a day to take the child to and from Clarkson High School in Humansdorp.
This amounts to more than R16 a kilometre – R10 more than the rate charged by taxi company Uber.
The service provider’s bill for the year was R366 554 – or R9 115 a school week – making the pupil the most expensive to transport in the entire province, the report revealed.
The second most expensive pupil to take to school and back attended Kude Kwalapha Primary School in Cradock. The department paid R1 727 for the pupil to be driven 107km to school and back each day. This amounted to R8 635 a week and R347 239 a year.
The department spent almost R1 billion on scholar transport for the three-year period to 2014, the report showed.
And although 95 000 pupils in the province qualified for school transport in 2014, the exorbitant cost structure meant it could cater for only 57 000.
The report also reveals that in various unnamed districts:
. R30 million was paid to transport 331 pupils;
. R23 million was spent on transporting 147 children;
. R4.36 million was spent giving lifts to 38 pupils;
. R6 million was paid to transport just 19 children; and
. R2.1 million was paid to transport companies hired to drive 173 children short distances of less than 5km.
The Auditor-General also found that the department wasted R3.8 million because the service providers it hired exaggerated the number of kilometres they travelled.
It paid R700 000 to transport three pupils who do not even exist.
The department paid R522 000 more per year to a company driving 27 children 31km a day to Madikizela Secondary School in Mbizana than it paid another firm transporting the same number of children to a school nearby over exactly the same distance.
It paid a consultant R4 million for doing nothing.
The report criticised the department’s tariff and cost structures, saying they were “not economical in all cases”.
“The learner transport scheme database used to generate transport claims and actual claims was not accurate. The tariff and cost structure was not scientifically determined beforehand,” reads the report.
“The department followed a noncompetitive bidding process and entered into a negotiated contract that specified the tariff and cost structure with the service provider.”
Aside from ghost pupils, the auditors found ghost pick-up points for children. In such instances, the principals of the schools stated that they could not confirm that the pick-up points existed or identify pupils allocated to the pick-up points.
The report recommended that the department should reduce its reliance on consultants.
The department of transport failed to respond to requests for comment sent to it on Thursday.
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