Mpumalanga’s department of public works has accused the provincial treasury of “ignorance” and “malicious” behaviour following a damning report on the department’s functioning.
The accusation, contained in a letter to the treasury from the acting director of public works, William Mthombothi, follows the compilation of a dossier that paints a gloomy picture of widespread misconduct, and poor management controls in the department.
The Mail & Guardian published details of the dossier three weeks ago that included: failure to control its budgets and manage current projects; payments to contractors for uncompleted projects; issuing of tenders without following proper procedures and widespread wastefulness in expenditure.
The projects that raised the treasury’s eyebrows ran into tens of millions of rands.
But provincial minister of public works Steve Mabona dismissed the March 2003 report as “rubbish”.
The provincial treasury has now appointed a team of top auditors to probe the department while the provincial auditor general has also launched an investigation into the matter.
John Wattrus, director of the Nelspruit-based auditing firm Volker, Wattrus and De Wet, confirmed that the firm had been appointed to investigate the department’s affairs.
In an angry letter to provincial treasury head Solly Tshitangano, Mothombothi, condemned the report.
“This department [public works] is greatly concerned that for reasons known to yourself, you chose to record wrong figures despite the fact that you were given correct figures. We consider this irresponsible and malicious.
“Your report has caused much concern within this department because it suggests negative reporting, bias and extreme subjectivity.”
Mothombothi said the report failed to give “positive comment” about the fact that the department was the “best spending, with the less than 1% under expenditure [sic]”.
“Instead, for reasons known only to yourself, you chose to go to great lengths to try to prove that this department spent funds irregularly,” the letter reads.
Mthombothi’s attack increased in its stridency when he criticised Tshitangano for failing to recognise the need to pay contractors for materials before construction began.
“You are exposing your ignorance of the way in which contractors in the building environment work,” he wrote.
He then alleged that Tshitangano might have a personal agenda against the department because he had failed to attend meetings to which he had been invited and was difficult to contact.
“Instead you decided to go and write a negative report without establishing the facts. Mr Tshitangano, has this department done you any wrong?”
Mthombothi also complained that while the report refered to his department, it had been circulated throughout all the province’s departments.
“… The department would still appreciate a meeting with yourselves before you can publish faulty reports,” Mthombothi stated in his conclusion.
Tshitangano, however, insists that the treasury report is correct and factual. “There is no way we could have compiled the report without any substance,” he said.
Tshitangano does not appear to be the only person who believes that the department deserves scrutiny.
Douglas Maphiri, the provincial auditor general, said this week that his office had also launched an investigation into the matter.
“A team of auditors is now in the process of auditing the department’s finances,” said Maphiri. He said the audits would be completed by next month.
Senior officials in the Mpumalanga government told the M&G that the Scorpions crime busting unit was also investigating allegations of financial mismanagement in the department.
Sipho Ngwema, spokesperson for the Scorpions, declined to comment on whether the unit was conducting such an investigation.