STRONG action has been called for following a damning auditor general‘s report on low cost housing in the Western Cape.
The DA wants the report debated in the provincial legislature and also wants parliament‘s standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) to “deal with it”.
DA MPL Robin Carlisle said yesterday he would request Scopa to deal with the report as a matter of urgency.
A performance audit report published by the auditor general in May revealed that 60 per cent of low cost homes in the province had serious defects.
The report focused on the allocation of housing subsidies and the administration of low cost housing projects by the Western Cape local government and housing department.
It found that at least 2210 municipal employees who earned more than the subsidy threshold of R42000, and thus were not entitled to a subsidy, had in fact received subsidies to the value of at least R65-million.
Carlisle said: “This is only the tip of the iceberg as the sample only covered municipal employees at seven councils. During the period of the audit, some 200000 subsidies were allocated, and on the basis of the auditor general‘s sample, the fraud must be massive.”
In a physical inspection of a sample of low cost housing projects from across the province, the auditor general found the general condition of the houses to be poor.
The report said 60% of the houses had one or more serious defects, including severe cracks in walls and foundations, leaking roofs, windows and doors that did not function properly, and reticulation services that did not function properly.
In addition 49% of the houses experienced dampness, many erven had been serviced but the top structures had never been built, and there was a difference in the department‘s books where the accounts in respect of subsidies failed to balance by an amount of R15,8-million.
Vusi Tshose, a spokesman for housing MEC Richard Dyantyi, said the provincial administration had already spent R80-million on a rectification programme.
“That programme is still taking place, specifically in Cape Town,” he said.
“In George, the MEC got together with construction companies and asked them to come back to him with a programme of how they would rectify shoddy work.”
Tshose added that they had “learnt a strict lesson” from the past and only paid out the full amount owing to construction companies once the building inspectors were happy with the work done on low cost houses.
“Province has a plan in place and is working with the local municipalities to identify and rectify the shoddy work,” he said.
Carlisle said that quality assurance measures put in place by the government did not seem to be working.
“Developers are allowed to build sub-standard houses and get away with it. Projects on which millions have already been spent on infrastructure come to grinding halts. Brand new houses are vandalised because the owners cannot be found, or the house was not allocated in the first place.”
- The Herald
The DA wants the report debated in the provincial legislature and also wants parliament‘s standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) to “deal with it”.
DA MPL Robin Carlisle said yesterday he would request Scopa to deal with the report as a matter of urgency.
A performance audit report published by the auditor general in May revealed that 60 per cent of low cost homes in the province had serious defects.
The report focused on the allocation of housing subsidies and the administration of low cost housing projects by the Western Cape local government and housing department.
It found that at least 2210 municipal employees who earned more than the subsidy threshold of R42000, and thus were not entitled to a subsidy, had in fact received subsidies to the value of at least R65-million.
Carlisle said: “This is only the tip of the iceberg as the sample only covered municipal employees at seven councils. During the period of the audit, some 200000 subsidies were allocated, and on the basis of the auditor general‘s sample, the fraud must be massive.”
In a physical inspection of a sample of low cost housing projects from across the province, the auditor general found the general condition of the houses to be poor.
The report said 60% of the houses had one or more serious defects, including severe cracks in walls and foundations, leaking roofs, windows and doors that did not function properly, and reticulation services that did not function properly.
In addition 49% of the houses experienced dampness, many erven had been serviced but the top structures had never been built, and there was a difference in the department‘s books where the accounts in respect of subsidies failed to balance by an amount of R15,8-million.
Vusi Tshose, a spokesman for housing MEC Richard Dyantyi, said the provincial administration had already spent R80-million on a rectification programme.
“That programme is still taking place, specifically in Cape Town,” he said.
“In George, the MEC got together with construction companies and asked them to come back to him with a programme of how they would rectify shoddy work.”
Tshose added that they had “learnt a strict lesson” from the past and only paid out the full amount owing to construction companies once the building inspectors were happy with the work done on low cost houses.
“Province has a plan in place and is working with the local municipalities to identify and rectify the shoddy work,” he said.
Carlisle said that quality assurance measures put in place by the government did not seem to be working.
“Developers are allowed to build sub-standard houses and get away with it. Projects on which millions have already been spent on infrastructure come to grinding halts. Brand new houses are vandalised because the owners cannot be found, or the house was not allocated in the first place.”
- The Herald
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