Patricia de Lille, former Cape Town Mayor, Public Works and Infrastructure Minister. Photo: Flickr/Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy
Patricia de Lille, former Cape Town Mayor, Public Works and Infrastructure Minister. Photo: Flickr/Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy
Public Works and infrastructure Minister Patricia de Lille has told Parliament that she is awaiting word from President Cyril Ramaphosa on whether or not director general of the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure, advocate Sam Vukela should be temporarily suspended from his role.
PwC report
Vukela is implicated in a report by PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC) that suggests that he was responsible for irregular expenditure amounting to over R75 million on three separate state funerals.
Speaking to the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) on Wednesday, de Lille said that Ramaphosa had been made aware of the issue and was deliberating on the next step.
“Unfortunately our DG is implicated in that report,” she said.
“The procedure is that, as a minister, I can’t act against the director-general. I have to refer the matter to the presidency, which I have done in terms of the recommendations contained in that report,” she said.
Inflated figures
Scopa questioned de Lille on suspicious spending involved in the state funerals of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, Dr Zola Skweyiya and ambassador Billy Modise 2018/19, where they said that the report made by PwC auditors showed “grossly inflated figures”.
The report pointed the finger at Vukela as well as four other department officials.
The deputy director-general responsible for governance and risk, Imtiaz Fazel, told MPs the payment process was “fundamentally flawed” and that created a platform for “major” transgressions.
He said the over-payment by the department was due to officials approving invoices without applying the necessary application to ensure they were valid and accurate.
“The over-payment resulted in fruitless and irregular expenditure,” he said.
Expensive affairs
At the time of the funerals, the cost of some of the necessary additions raised eyebrows.
For Madikizela-Mandela’s funeral, which cost R37 million, taxpayers forked out R420 000 for 3 500 serviettes, while for Skweyiya’s funeral, which cost just shy of R29 million, taxpayers paid R50 000 for 500 serviettes.
