MEC Grilled Over Doctored Report [Sunday Times, 2006-08-20]

An Eastern Cape MEC has received a roasting from his own portfolio committee after a departmental report on a troubled municipality was deliberately watered down.

In a rare move that underlined tensions in the ruling party’s heartland, Local Government and Housing MEC Sam Kwelita was summoned to give evidence under oath before agitated committee members this week.

He was asked to explain why his department had released an abridged version of a report that described the virtual collapse of Mnquma Municipality in Butterworth as a result of political strife.

Bickering between ANC officials in the municipality has brought service delivery to its knees and attempts made to resolve the prickly situation have failed.

After the local government elections in March, three provincial task teams were sent to the area to assess the situation.

Amid the chaos they established that there was rampant abuse of public funds, key officials had been suspended and reinstated by the council, financial statements had not been filed with the Auditor-General, and there were irregularities in some staff appointments amounting to “jobs for pals”.

The post of municipal manager is held by two people the incumbent, Ngamela Pakade, who is facing charges of theft and fraud following a Scorpions investigation, and Sipho Mengezeleli, who was dismissed by Pakade in July 2004 and then reinstated in an acting capacity after his axing was found to be unlawful.

A report on the findings of the task teams was compiled, along with two pages of recommendations, by Zolile Nozewu, a department employee.

But a sanitised version of the report was released instead, with key recommendations that the department intervene in the mess, appoint an administrator and root out known troublemakers omitted.

Kwelita told the committee he was not behind the decision to suppress the more critical version of the report.

Nozewu told the committee that he had received instructions from his senior manager, Sibongile Madyaka, to make alterations to the report he had prepared. He said he was told to leave out the recommendations and condense the report from 26 to 14 pages.

Nozewu said he stood by his findings that the municipality was in “a serious financial crisis”.

And in Other History

The Auditor-General and Public Protector have not received a roasting from their political superiors after a joint investigation report on a troubled strategic acquisition deal was deliberately watered down.

In a move that underlined tensions in the entire land, Auditor-General, Shauket Fakie was summoned to give evidence, but not under oath before agitated SCOPA committee members. The ANC members of SCOPA were agitated because their bosses had been caught with their hands in the cookie jar and the non-ANC members were agitated because the Leader of Government Business had interfered with the investigation. Only later did it transpire that his hands were even more firmly gripped around the mielie cobs in the calabash and he just could not release them.

Fakie was asked to explain why his office had released an abridged version of a report that described the virtual collapse of regular acquisition as a result of political interference and enrichment.

Three constitutional watchdog task teams had been sent to the area to assess the situation. A fourth constitutional watchdog had been barred from the investigation by the Leader of Government Business and his boss, the President.

Amid the chaos the the investigation team established was that there was rampant abuse of public funds, key officials had been suspended and reinstated by the Department of Defence and there were some staff appointments amounting to “jobs for pals”.

The Chief of Acquisitions faced charges of insubordination following an internal investigation. Chippy Shaikh, who had been suspended by the Minister of Defence in late 2001 was then reinstated when his axing was realised to be seriously compromising to all those whose hands were also in the cookie jar.

A report on the findings of the task teams was compiled, along with pages and pages of findings and conclusion by the investigators who undertook the investigation, inter alia Advocates Jan Swanepoel and Charles der Chermont of PriceWaterhouseCoopers.

But a sanitised version of the report was released instead, with lots of history and some wishy washy "key" recommendations that the department clean up its mess in the future, but omitting key findings that the entire deal was riddled with irregularities.

Fakie told the committee that the published joint investigation report was essentially identical to the draft he had submitted to President and Ministers Committee and only differed in respect of readability and non-duplication.

Only very much later Shauket Fakie told the committee that the decision to suppress the more critical version of the report was made after he supplied a draft to the President and Ministers Committee who instructed him to remove key findings from the report and include statements that no cabinet ministers were implicated in any wrongdoing and therefore that the Government's contracting position was not flawed.

Fakie admitted that he received instructions from his political seniors to make these alterations to the report his investigators had prepared. He said he was told to leave out the key findings, include the statements that the President and cabinet ministers wanted to see and condense the report from 1 400 pages to 400 pages.

Fakie later admitted that the report prepared by the key investigators was completely rewritten during the period 16 October 2001 to 14 November 2001 by Advocates Lionel van Tonder of PriceWaterhouseCoopers and Christoffel Fourie of the Office of the Public Protector. He didn't say whether or not they were assisted by the senior researcher and ex journalist in the Government Communication and Information Service. But co-conspirator Selby Baqwa did make an oblique reference to a Tony Hurd (sic) *1 in one of his answers to the parliamentary questioning on the Arms Deal joint report.

Only years later Fakie admitted that the Arms Deal was seriously flawed in many respects.

Publication	Sunday Times
Date	2006-08-20
Reporter	Brett Horner
Web Link	www.sundaytimes.co.za