The Free State Sport, Arts, Culture and Recreation (SACR) department is yet again under the spotlight, this time with the department being under investigation for its mismanagement of state funds and flouting of supply chain processes.
An inside source has also revealed to Step Up SA News a horror story of pre-meditated corruption and looting of state funds within the department.
The investigation in question relates to the unveiling of the Fezile Dabi statute in Parys last month where it is alleged that the MEC of the department, Limakatso Mahasa hand picked a supplier and disregarded supply chain processes.
Brief background
The department in 2018 went out on tender for the procurement of these statues as per the 2019 Annual Report. A source with intimate knowledge said the former Supply Chain Management (SCM) Director Takalani Ramabulana hand picked colleagues from other departments.
“Mr. Ramabulana used the Bid Evaluation Committee comprised of the DSACR officials and out of this process only two companies made functionality threshold to finally be make it for consideration by the Bid Adjudication Committee. The two companies were Koketso Growth (Owned by Dali Tambo, and the other company belongs to Mr. Monyane Sefantsi, the latter being the Current Acting Municipal Manager of Reitz Municipality). At some stage before adjudication it was discovered that in the bid document of Mr. Sefantsi’s company, the latter submitted false and fraudulent information in that in a quest to justify their experience in developing statues. They claimed to have produced, manufactured and erected the OR Tambo Statue at OR Tambo Building and the Fidel Castro Statue at the Fidel Castro Building. The true fact is that these statues were produced, manufactured, and erected by Koketso Group and NOT by Mr. Sefantsi’s company. The crux of this anomaly is that the OR Tambo and the Fidel Castro Statues appeared on the profiles of both companies that went through, being Mr. Monyane Sefantsi’s company and Koketso Growth (Dali Tambo’s company and the real creators of both statues). It is at this point that Mr. Ramabulana used the external Bid Adjudication Committee comprising of his hand-picked colleagues from other departments outside the DSACR, notably from DESTEA and Social Development.”
Our source continued, “Mr Sefantsi alleged that his company also erected a statue at the Weslyan Church in Waaihoek. It is common cause that there is NO statue whatsoever at the Weslyan Church and it was not even part of deliverables during the upgrade of the precinct in celebration of the ANC Centenary. To date, there is no statue at the precinct contrary to claims by Mr. Sefantsi.”
It remains a mystery that the departmental Bid Evaluation Committee did not notice that Mr. Sefantsi provided fraudulent information because the OR Tambo and the Fidel Castro statues were evaluated and adjudicated by DSCAR officials exclusively and they know that Koketso Growth was the successful bidder that delivered the statues. It must have been reasonably foreseeable that they should have raised the alarm regarding misrepresentations by Mr. Sefantsi’s company. It must be noted that once the alleged fraud was picked up prior to Adjudication, Mr. Ramabulana had to act swiftly to cover his tracks and destroy the Bid Documents.
Africa Boso, spokesman of Auditor General South Africa told Step Up SA News that “The AGSA had limitations to audit the expenditure incurred in the 2019-20 financial year by the department on the erection of the statues due to lack of documentation which was not available to enable audit to be conducted.”
It is alleged Ramabulana illegally took the bid documents after adjudicating the tender with his friends and never returned them back to the Supply Chain Management branch of the DSACR.
A source who spoke on condition of anonymity said the company that got the tender made fraudulent claims.
“The fact is that Mr. Sefantsi has never erected any statue prior to his fraudulent appointment by DSACR. Mr. Monyane’s company irregularly and fraudulently misrepresented to the DSACR, with Mr. Ramabulana’s full knowledge, that they have produced work that was in-fact produced by their competitor, Koketso Growth. This can be verified by Mr. Dali Tambo himself and Mr. Vincent Khetha, who is the current Chief Director of Cultural Affairs in DSACR.”
The source concluded by pointing to the Chief Director Cultural Affairs Vincent Khetha.
“Khetha played a very active role in verification and erecting of the OR Tambo and Fidel Castro Statues. The awarding of the tender to Mr. Sefantsi is materially flawed and irregular and Koketso Growth can legally challenge this award to Mr. Sefantsi and claim damages.”
To make matters worse, the statue of Leabua Jonathan remains stored at the Musicon instead of being erected in Lesotho because of failure by the DSACR to do due diligence in the political environment in Lesotho and as a result the leadership in Lesotho rejected the statue due to the turbulent past at the instance of former Prime Minister Leabua Jonathan there, we are told. He was the leader of the Basotho National Party who was regarded as a despot and a dictator by his detractors, some of whom went into exile, most notably Phakalitha Mosisili. Mosisili himself penned a scathing letter to the Free State Government denouncing its endeavour to honour Leabua Jonathan despite his dubious history and controversial political stature in Lesotho. Since this pushback, the Free State Government had to abort the intended erecting of this statue in Lesotho. At best, this statue may well be smelted and its residue be sold for scrap.
It therefore means that the amount spent on this statue can be termed as fruitless and wasteful expenditure which must be recoverable form those involved, particularly Mr. Ramabulana and Mr. Vincent Khetha as the responsible programme manager.
It is alleged that Mr. Sefantsi hired artists from Makhanda (former Grahamstown) to build the statues at an estimated cost of R1,5m but charged the department exorbitantly per statue. It is alleged that the real cost for this statue should at-least be no more than R3,3m maximum. It is further alleged that various officials within the department received handsome kickbacks from Sefantsi, Ramabulana being one of the chief beneficiaries.
It is alleged the DSACR does not have a Legal Advisor or even a Directorate for Legal Services. It has been an established principle that all tenders, prior to being approved by the HOD will be sent to the State Law Advisors in order to determine their legal standing without exception.
It is alleged when Mr. Ramabulana arrived at DSACR he refused to subject any tender process to this noble exercise. It is further alleged that the only document that exists between the DSACR and the company of Mr. Sefantsi is a Service Level Agreement (SLA) that was provided by Mr. Ramabulana. It is not known where he got the agreement and what qualification he possesses to draft any legal document. It must be noted that the said SLA is not even in a form of a Joint Building Contracts Committee (JBCC) agreement and as a result it made it impossible for the company of Mr. Sefantsi to be put to terms when they were underperforming.
Another source from the directorate said its not surprising that statues are not given the attention.
“Well Vincent Khetha’s wife Mpho Khetha heads our Internal Audit, so how do you expect her to find faults against her husband’s directorate?”
It has also been discovered that since Ramabulana was moved from Supply Chain to Heritage by Mahasa, he is always in Mpho Khetha’s office and to date no report has been issued as to what he does as Vincent Khetha is his boss and he ‘chills’ with the wife at work.
The department has failed to develop audit action plan nor taken any action against any alleged perpetrators but when its others the plan is quickly activated.
MEC Mahasa did not repond to our questions while Mr Tambo and Mr Sefantsi could not be reached for their comments.
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