Durban - Weak management practices and failure to monitor contractors resulted in dead people, and others with invalid ID numbers, emerging as beneficiaries of disaster relief aid in eThekwini Municipality.
This is one of the findings by Auditor-General (AG) Tsakani Maluleke in a report that she presented to the ad-hoc joint committee on flood disaster relief and recovery last week, into the progress made in the recovery process after last year’s floods.
The report, a second one on how provinces including KwaZulu-Natal, particularly eThekwini, and the Eastern Cape had spent money meant to assist those displaced by the floods in April last year, showed there had been little improvement with regard to the problems identified in the first report.
More concerning was the revelation that KZN had spent less than a tenth of its allocation, raising concern over the provincial government’s sense of urgency when there is a clear demand from affected communities for funds.
According to the AG, out of the R5.8 billion that had been committed, the KZN government had spent R251 million, which is equivalent to 4%, by May 31.
The AG said in eThekwini, they had looked into four areas, including:
- The repair work at the oThongathi Water Treatment Plant.
- The building materials supplied to those in need.
- Repairs to flood-damaged roads.
- Water supply through tanker services.
“We looked at the matters of providing building supplies to the people who lost their homes so they could rebuild,” said Maluleke, adding that they found basic controls over this process to be inadequate or ineffective.
The AG said there was no policy clarity to ensure that materials were supplied to the intended beneficiary list. She said the list of beneficiaries included people who were deceased. The investigation had also shown a lack of co-ordination to repair the damaged infrastructure on time.
“We also identified that there was still a lack of co-ordination between the different spheres of government – the province and the metro, but also importantly within the metro itself there were instances where divisions of the metro were not co-ordinating their efforts,” the AG told MPs.
“The overall message (of the assessment) is that there is still a slow response to the disaster. From the impact assessment to the delivery of service or the actual implementation of the relief effort, there is still a great deal of time between those two activities,” she said.
She cited the functioning of the tanker services as her office had found that communities were still not receiving adequate clean drinking water and that the rates being charged for these tanker services were excessive, which pointed to weak control systems.
“The pre-existing deficiencies in terms of internal controls and the lack of internal capacity that we reported on the last time around, we saw are still prevalent,” she said. The AG told MPs her office had also found that municipalities across the province had continued to struggle in the face of this deadly disaster.
African Transformation Movement MP Vuyo Zungula said the report had been an eye opener and warranted action, with possibly the involvement of law-enforcement agencies in a bid to deal with possible criminal elements identified in the AG’s report.
“Is it possible for the submission of the cases to the National Prosecuting Authority or the Special Investigating Unit? Because in my view, some of the findings are very serious,” said Zungula.
Committee co-chairperson Archibold Nyambi described the report as comprehensive, and said it would serve as a guide when committee members embark on another oversight visit to provinces this week. “It is a confirmation of some of the things we picked (up) on the ground.”
The eThekwini Municipality’s head of communications Lindiwe Khuzwayo said the City would be able to respond to questions today.
KwaZulu-Natal government spokesperson Bongi Gwala acknowledged a request for comment from The Mercury and said they would respond in due course.