Today, the Democratic Alliance (DA) in Gauteng laid criminal charges against the former Department of Roads and Transport, Head of Department (HOD), Ronald Swartz, regarding the irregular, unauthorised, fruitless, and wasteful expenditure incurred by the department between the 2015/2016 and 2016/2017 financial years.
We have also submitted questions to the Office of the Premier regarding the disciplinary action that was taken against the previous HOD. A PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) report into the bus subsidies paid to bus companies recommends that criminal action be taken against the former HOD, as he allegedly contravened the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA). Section 81 (1) and (2) of the PFMA, which deals with financial misconduct when due processes are not followed.
The PwC report recommends that the Accounting Officer of the Gauteng Department of Roads and Logistics takes, or further pursues criminal action against the former HOD in terms of Section 86 (1) of the PFMA as he caused unauthorised, fruitless and wasteful expenditure and committed financial misconduct amounting to R70 047 174, 34 and R130 000,000,00 relating to the payment of relief payments for the 2015/2016 and 2016/2017 financial years respectively and irregular expenditure amounting to R20 000,000,00 paid to Autopax in relief payment.
See the report here.
The DA Gauteng has laid criminal charges because the MEC for Roads and Logistics, Kedibone Diale-Tlabela, admitted in a written reply to our questions tabled in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature (GPL), that no money has been recovered and that the HOD faced disciplinary action, but the details of exactly what this entailed are only known by Premier Panyaza Lesufi.
We maintain that the only way to clamp down on corruption and misconduct in the Gauteng Provincial Government (GPG) is by adopting a zero-tolerance approach. We cannot have officials in positions where they can abuse the public purse.
The DA Gauteng will monitor the progress of this case and be in contact with the investigating officer regularly.
A DA-led Gauteng provincial government would immediately implement the recommendations of forensic investigation reports. We will ensure that officials found guilty of financial misconduct face the full might of the law and use all the mechanisms at our disposal to recover the money lost due to their negligence.