By BAKANG MOKOTO
It is not raining but pouring for the disgraced former North West Public Works and Roads’ head of department, Pakiso Mothupi. This comes after the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) has been granted a preservation order by the Special Tribunal to freeze Mothupi’s pension benefits of over R3.4 million pending the institution of an action against him.
SIU spokesperson, Kaizer Kganyago said: “The ongoing investigations revealed that, while working as the HOD, Mothupi committed the department into unlawful contracts with private entities.
“He authorised payments to Ayamah Consulting Engineers (Pty) Ltd in circumstances, where there were no services rendered to justify the payment, resulting in financial losses of R 166 290 625, 77.”
He further said the SIU intends to launch an action in the Tribunal within 30 days to recover the amount. Kganyago added that the beleaguered Mothupi was dismissed on 4 June 2021.
According to Kganyago, on 7 November 2016, Mothupi wrote to Mbombela requesting
to participate in the contract between the municipality and Ayamah. He said after Mothupi sent the letter to Mbombela, the Department’s Bid Adjudication Committee
(BAC) met on 9 November 2016 to consider and recommend the participation.
“However, the BAC’s recommendation was not for participation in a contract for water and sanitation services but for roads. The recommendation was followed by the appointment of Ayamah embodied in a letter signed by Mothupi dated 11 November 2016.
“Curiously, on 18 November 2016, the Chief Directorate Transport Infrastructure prepared a
submission seeking approval for the appointment of an external program managers to
assist the department to achieve its goals,” said Kganyago.
He said unlike the contract with Mbombela, the appointment in the North West was for roads and management services. Kganyago said the Mbombela contract commenced in July 2014 and was terminated in July 2017, while the SLA with the department commenced in November 2016 and was terminated in May 2018.
“This had the effect of extending a contract that was coming to an end through an effluxion of time. The department agreed to pay a once-off set–up fee (equal to 10% of the annual fee) for the establishment of Ayamah’s offices in North West, together with relocation and
infrastructure costs,” he said.
Kganyago said part of the responsibilities assigned to Ayamah included the provision
of support to the department in procurement of professional services and contractors, but the SLA was allegedly riddled with a host of irregularities.
“There was no competitive bidding process followed and the department failed to consider locally based companies, resulting in set-up costs that are believed to be in excess of the actual costs.
“The set-up costs were not included in the participation request or letter of appointment.
Even though the investigation is ongoing, the SIU claims that the department incurred
fruitless and wasteful expenditure because Mothupi deliberately went out of his way to
violate the law and unlawfully appointed Ayamah,” said Kganyago.
In March 2017, the department made pre-payments of R103m to Ayamah in two tranches of R 8 540 587 and R 94 495 413 in the extension to the rehabilitating the flood-damaged road infrastructure.
The Guardian 