The Star
*Courts to try to stop rot at Public Works* *Gaye Davis, Political Bureau, The Star, Johannesburg, 9 May 2012 *The courts will be asked to render null and void 22 leases involving payments of more than R64 million, and the arrest of implicated officials was imminent, Public Works Minister Thulas Nxesi said on Tuesday -- but he warned that the rot in the ailing department could extend much further.
"There are no quick wins with leases. Years of poor management, under-capacity and lack of financial controls have provided fertile terrain for fraud and corruption," he told Parliament.
Delivering his maiden budget vote speech, Nxesi -- who took over in October after Gwen Mahlangu-Nkabinde was sacked in the wake of the SAPS lease scandal -- said he had managed to "stop the bleeding" of a department that had been "in intensive care".
But he made it clear there was little hope the Department of Public Works would achieve a better audit outcome for the past financial year, saying "too little, too late" had been done.
"DPW is still in ICU, but we are now stopping the bleeding and stabilising the patient," Nxesi said.
He said "serious irregularities" had come to light during the Special Investigating Unit's investigation in just one region -- Joburg -- where the 22 leases worth R64m had been uncovered.
This included leases where the DPW had paid for the duration of the lease without the building being occupied.
"We have instructed our lawyers to approach the High Court to nullify these irregular lease agreements and to institute civil action against whoever unduly benefited.
"Criminal cases are being opened against several officials -- more are expected. I am informed that some criminal investigations have been concluded and arrests are imminent."
However, the department managed about 3 000 leases and all of them would be examined by a joint team that included treasury officials.
Nxesi said a quarter of the leases had lapsed and were being paid on a month-to-month basis, resulting in problems experienced by, for example, the police, who had found themselves locked out of premises around the country because the rent had not been paid.
While this was being addressed by top-level meetings between his acting director-general, Mandisa Fatyela-Lindie, and the SAPS, similar meetings would be held shortly with the departments of correctional services and education, Nxesi said.
He said he expected the lease audit to be completed within 12 months.Private lease costs for government offices stand at R3 billion a year -- and have escalated, in just a few years, from an annual cost of around R1.2bn, it emerged during a briefing earlier on Tuesday.
An application to have the controversial SAPS Pretoria headquarters lease declared invalid was still before the Pretoria High Court, Nxesi said.
He ascribed the extent of the problems as due to a combination of a lack of skills and capacity -- people employed in jobs they were not qualified for -- and outright corruption, where prices were deliberately inflated.
More than half of the senior managers in the department were acting, he said.
Lease agreements in some cases were concluded by unqualified officials with property brokers who had their lawyers present.
"You cannot call that negotiations; it just becomes a walkover," Nxesi said at the briefing.
A range of initiatives were being formulated to stabilise the department in order to start turning it around, he said.
*Political Bureau**From: http://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/courts-to-try-to-stop-rot-at-public-works-1.1292527*
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