Bizarre details of misgovernance, reckless management and alleged misappropriation of funds in the KwaZulu-Natal legislature emerged this week with the release of a confidential auditor general’s report.
The report by provincial auditor general Barry Wheeler was handed to the speaker’s office early last year, but was kept confidential as it implicated various staff members, who were to face disciplinary proceedings.
Among the more outlandish findings were that a Mercedes-Benz allocated to speaker Bonga Mdletshe collided with a cow when the driver deviated from the official route to buy vegetables, and that almost R1-million was spent on lounge suites and fridges for the legislative assembly flats in Ulundi. Much of the old furniture mysteriously vanished. There was also the case of the legislature website that never went online.
The African Christian Democratic Party’s Jo-Ann Downs released the report to the Mail & Guardian this week, with the explanation that the house had waited more than a year for action to be taken based on the findings of the report.
She said all but one of the 26 resolutions drawn up by the legislature’s executive board in the wake of the report had been ignored. The investigation was instituted in response to several allegations, which included the following:
Inappropriate appointments and allocations of subsidies to certain employees;
Serious deficiencies in the administration of legislative assembly flats in Ulundi;
Misuse and under-utilisation of European Union funding of more than R2-million;
Purchase of furniture without prior approval; and
Abuse of state-owned vehicles and cellphones.
Wheeler noted in his report that given the fact that the legislature is a “relatively small entity” with an expenditure budget of R31-million a year and a staff of 114 and is run by a secretary and a deputy who earn salaries of R580 000 and R475 000 a year respectively, “one would expect the management and administration of the legislature to be well run”.
However, he found that R174 782 of rental income from the legislative assembly flats in Ulundi in 2001 was either misappropriated or not collected, and that rent is seldom collected from the members of the legislature (MPL).
He also found that MPLs sometimes stay at the Holiday Inn in Ulundi when a flat has been allocated to them. Some employees had stayed rent-free in state-owned accommodation in Pietermartizburg for more than a year.
The findings also reveal that in 1998 the legislature paid almost R1-million for computer file servers, which have not been used. Some staff members spend more than a R1 000 a month on calls on cellular phones provided by the legislature. The report also points out that the legislature spent only 32% of funding provided by the EU.
It found that R75 746 of the EU funding was spent on developing a website for the legislature, which has yet to become functional.
The report revealed that more than R100 000 was spent on repairs to one of the two Mercedes-Benzes allocated to Mdletshe after it collided with a cow in 2001.
Wheeler wrote in his report that the speaker’s official driver “deviated off the official route to purchase vegetables for his family, during which time a herd boy herded his cattle into the path of the vehicle and he collided with one of the cows”.
In one instance Mdletshe driver was instructed to bring documents to his house in Hlabisa from Ulundi for two consecutive days in 2001. Of the nine accidents that the report uncovered, seven involved staff from the speaker’s office. Deputy speaker Willies Mchunu was the driver of one of the vehicles.
The report revealed that the internal arrangements committee of the legislature had purchased furniture worth almost R1-million in 1995, comprising 69 lounge suites, 69 fridges, 69 coffee tables and 69 bedroom suites for the legislative assembly flats without any motivation for the need for new furniture. The investigation was unable to locate any list giving details of the old furniture that was removed from the flats. However, 29 old fridges were found stored in a hall and 32 were reported to have been stolen while stored at the deputy speaker’s official house.
Mchunu said the legislature could not comment as the report was still confidential.