President Thabo Mbeki has ordered the special investigating unit, also known as the Scorpions, to probe wide-ranging allegations of corruption and maladministration in five Western Cape councils.
He authorised the investigation in a proclamation published in the Government Gazette on Monday. The councils are the Saron local council, the Weskus district council, and the Calitzdorp, Worcester and Robertson municipalities.
Mbeki has given the unit terms of reference that include an investigation of serious maladministration, intentional or negligent loss of public money, damage to public property and corruption.
The terms cover the period from January 1993 to the present. The allegations are listed in a schedule to the proclamation.
In Saron, the unit will be looking at unauthorised or irregular payments to members and employees of the management board, the board’s failure to keep proper financial records, and the irregular award of tenders.
Also in Saron, it will be examining the unauthorised deposit of council money in the personal bank account of a board member, irregular tendering by board members to build a holiday resort, and the irregular allocation of communal land to a church, board members and their families.
In Weskus, it will probe irregular pension payments to former council members, and the council’s failure to collect income tax from its officials.
In Calitzdorp it will look at tendering irregularities over two financial years, the municipality’s failure to recover debts on building materials supplied to owner-builders, and irregular subsidies to owner-builders.
The Worcester municipality is alleged to have failed to collect and write off debts, to have irregularly spent money on a new computer system, and to have failed to keep an asset register.
Worcester also allegedly failed to account for a capital subsidy of R3,38-million from the Independent Development Trust.
The proclamation claims Robertson has also suffered losses because of its failure to collect and write off debts, that it has failed to keep an asset register, and that it neglected to recover rent from tenants in council housing. – Sapa