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Mpuma 'ignored own legal team'
15/03/2006 21:02 - (SA)
Sizwe samaYende
Nelspruit - The Mpumalanga government ignored advice from its own legal team when it awarded a R15m contract to a public relations and marketing company in 2002.
The company, Rainbow Kwanda, was hired to clean up the province's corrupt image.
State law advisers told the legislature's select committee on public accounts (Scopa) that they had advised former premier Ndaweni Mahlangu and former director-general Stanley Soko not to hire the company.
Chief finance officer in the Mpumalanga premier's office, David Sekgobela, told Scopa that payments to Rainbow Kwanda were also irregular.
"It appears R3.6m was paid to the company before the contract was signed, and a further R590 000 was paid as VAT, but the invoices had the wrong VAT numbers," said Scopa chairman Louis Marneweck on Wednesday.
"We also doubt that the (South African Revenue Services) received anything," he added.
Marneweck said Scopa would compile a report and table it before the legislature.
On trial for bribery
Marneweck said that in terms of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA), implicated individuals would have to repay the taxpayer, and would be charged criminally.
"But, that will depend on whether the legislature condones the expenditure or not," he added.
A casualty of the contract is former national prosecuting authority (NPA) deputy-director Cornwell Tshavhungwa.
He is on trial in Pretoria High Court on charges of accepting a bribe to stop investigating irregularities in the allocation of the Rainbow Kwanda contract.
Evidence given in the court so far also has implicated Soko in trying to solicit a R1m bribe from the company.
Soko has denied any involvement and accused Rainbow Kwanda of being "wounded tigers" because the government terminated their contract.
Premier Thabang Makwetla cancelled the contract when Soko was still in office. Soko's contract with the government was not renewed at the end of his term in September last year.
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