Making Tshwane capture proof
If you thought that one or two families had a monopoly on state capture, you’d be wrong. Neither is state capture limited to national departments and parastatals. The usurpation of public processes for private profit, and the simultaneous destruction of value, is probably happening in your own municipality. In Tshwane we have launched a number of forensic investigations to find out if our local body politic has been so possessed.
One of the tenders being probed is for supply, maintenance and repair of the City’s fleet of service delivery vehicles. The deal is structured as a public private partnership with three different suppliers. A PPP, as it is generally known, transfers operational risk from a municipality to its private partners. At least, that is what the Municipal Finance Management Act requires. And because National Treasury signs-off on all municipal PPPs, there is at least a check against local irregularities.
Tshwane’s fleet PPP was approved by the municipal council in January 2016, a few months before the ANC was voted out of power in Tshwane. At the time the DA warned the former executive mayor that councillors did not have enough information to support the multi-billion rand, five-year deal. Only when the DA led multi-party government took power in August last year could we piece together the missing information, starting with a fleet that was in shambles.
By intent or neglect our predecessors had booby-trapped service delivery. It was clear that at least one supplier under the fleet PPP never had the ability to deliver on its obligations. Another supplier had previously employed the head of the City’s fleet division. The PPP was put together shortly after he had left their employ to work for the City (he subsequently resigned).
Two further signs prompted our probe into the deal. First, contractual provisions are so heavily biased against the City that no business would put itself in the same position. If municipal officials weren’t driving a hard bargain with suppliers, what exactly were they doing when these massive contracts were negotiated? How, and by whom, were the bid specifications drafted?