The party feels the committee is a centre of corruption and misappropriation of funds at the municipality and that something should happen to it.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) in the Govan Mbeki local municipality in Secunda has submitted a motion requesting the amendment of Section 29 of the Supply Chain Management Policy to allow the public access to the tender committee.
DA councillor Ciska Jordaan said opening up the Municipal Bid Adjudication Committee to the public will ensure transparency as it will prevent corruption, nepotism and wasteful expenditure that has come to define one of Mpumalanga’s worst-run municipalities.
“The motion seeks, among other things, to exclude politicians from the bid adjudication processes, and to allow the public to observe committee meetings and for the municipality to publicize reports and recommendations of the committee,” Jordaan said.
In a letter to acting municipal manager Linda Tshabalala and council speaker Fikile Magagamela dated 9 February 2022, Jordaan submits the motion that opening up the Municipal Bid Adjudication Committee to the public will avoid tenders being given to friends of those in power as the public will now be observing the entire process of selecting service providers.
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The party wants the items that will be discussed in any tender committee meeting as well as reports and recommendations to be made accessible to the community by the municipal manager.
“It is no secret that this municipality is practically insolvent due to crippling debts, poor financial management and misappropriation of funds,” Jordaan said.
The opposition party does not only want to have the public as an observer of tender committee processes but are also seeking to have politicians excluded from the bid processes for purposes of transparency.
“Transparency is at the heart of good governance. The DA maintains that the acceptance of such a motion in the Govan Mbeki council is an effective measure to avoid tenderpreneurship, nepotism and irregular tender allocations,” she said.
She said by this they don’t mean that the public should intervene in the work of the committee but to be mere observers to ensure transparency.
“The DA will continue to search for measures that will encourage public scrutiny and oversight into the affairs of the municipality in order to ensure that money meant for the people, is spent on the people,” Jordaan said.
(edited by MGB)
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