The Macufe saga between the Department of Sport, Arts, Culture and Recreation, DS Consortium, and the courts is far from over, this follows the department petitioning the Supreme Court of Appeal.
This comes right after the Free State High Court dismissed the SACR application to appeal an earlier judgment that declared the warding of the tender unlawful and set it aside.
Handing judgment Judge Loubser said.
“In the premises, I find that the decision sought on appeal will have no practical effect or result.
The following order is made:
The application for leave to appeal is dismissed with costs, including the costs of two counsel.”
A week later we reported how the management meeting at SACR was divided over the appeal with some warning against the appeal to SCA.
Step UP SA News is in possession of a petition to the SCA and the question on everyone’s lips is why the Premier, Sefora Ntombela or IPC is so quiet about Macufe mess.
We have learned two more persons have been suspended with Pakiso Lebone, Chief Director and they are:
The Deputy Director of Cash Management; Tesla Kotjomela, and PA to HOD; Lekwa Mmulutsi
However, Bridget Holini who is the manager in the office of the HOD is not suspended but that’s a story for another day.
After doing some maths following news that a submission for R7 million payment be made which would mean the total spent would be over R21 million instead of R16 million as awarded, we asked the governance officer in North West how an R16 million tender would jump R19 million from the first submission to R21 million she said.
“If indeed the total paid is R21 million this will need to be investigated and public money can not just be misused without accountability.”
Asked if Treasury officials can reject payment or refuse to process it she said.
“Treasury is like a bank, once any department sends BCT to Treasury it means that the department (SARC) officials CFO and HoD have satisfied themselves that all is in order therefore if anything is wrong SACR officials must be held accountable not Treasury.
“Government has systems and this explains why service providers are always paid late.”
The fine print on the BCT reads:
- The payments listed above were duly authorized by mandated officials in the Department
- The payments are for expenditures incurred per vote of the Department
- Processing of these payments will not result in unauthorized expenditure for the Department
- The expenditure was accurately and correctly allocated and classified under the correct budget allocation
- Payments against ear-marked funding and conditional grants(where relevant) were for expenditure incurred under the specific purpose for which the funds were appropriated for
In other news staff at Treasury is threatening to quit over bullying allegedly by Masechaba Sesing who among orders is accused of intimidating staff.
Sefora Ntombela, Free State Premier, and Gadija Brown, MEC for Finance didn’t respond to our questions.
This is a developing story.
If you have news or tips please email us at news@stepupsanews.co.za or WhatsApp 0685000246
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