Friday, July 26, 2013

Protector’s Nkandla report almost ready

PUBLIC Protector Thuli Madonsela says that making public her report on the R206m upgrade of President Jacob Zuma’s Nkandla residence will require further consideration as the information contained in the Department of Public Works report on Nkandla remains classified.

Speaking in Pretoria at the release of four final reports — including one titled "Pipes to Nowhere", on claims of poor sanitation and maladministration in a Free State municipality — Ms Madonsela said the Nkandla report was 99% complete, but "some things have to be tied up".

Her office has received a copy of a report by the Department of Public Works on the upgrades — a document that has been classified as top secret.

Ms Madonsela has previously given assurances that the report will not be leaked from her office, nor will any findings compromise Mr Zuma’s security.

She said on Thursday that an investigation into systemic service delivery failures and maladministration in the Nala municipality in the Free State had substantiated most of the complaints lodged in 2012 by a group of concerned citizens.

Residents of the municipality had approached the public protector over the non-implementation in the municipality of a KPMG forensic investigation dating back to 2010 and cited numerous service delivery failures, including around sanitation.

They complained, among other things, that the municipality’s sewerage plant was not operating, flush toilets built by the municipality were not connected to anything, and the bucket system put in place to manage sanitation problems was not operating regularly.

Ms Madonsela said on Thursday her investigation had confirmed that the company responsible for the toilet system was paid for work not done, resulting in irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure in the municipality.

Remedial action should be taken in the form of training of municipal officials, while those implicated should face disciplinary procedures, she said.

Nala community member Smanga Selemeni expressed satisfaction with the findings of the report. He said the community now expected further action from the province and that the KPMG investigation could not long be "pushed under the carpet".

Ms Madonsela also said her office had nearly concluded a "short-term" report on the controversial landing at Waterkloof Air Force Base of a private aircraft carrying wedding guests of the politically connected Gupta family earlier in 2013. She said her office had received a complaint from an individual expressing dissatisfaction with a report on the landing made by the justice, crime prevention and security cluster.

A decision on whether the Gupta landing warranted further investigation would be taken next week, she said. - BDlive

No comments: