Graft rife in councils - DCEC Report

EPHRAIM KEORENG
Staff Writer | Wednesday September 16, 2009 00:00

Some of the issues brought before the graft-busting agency were 'misappropriation of funds, connivance of council officials and clients, bribery, irregular procurement practices, misuse of council property and deviation from established procedures'.

In an effort to assist councils build corruption resistant systems through assignment studies aimed at identifying corruption opportunities and making recommendations for improvements the Central, Ghanzi, Kweneng and Southern district councils were examined.

According to the DCEC report, district councils exhibited a similar pattern of problems, which included: 'leakage of confidential information (especially price estimates) to prospective bidders, tender submissions that have been tampered with, conflict of interest by officers who front and in turn create businesses for their companies, inconsistent evaluation criteria which most of the time relies only on the lowest price at the expense of other important factors such as supplier performance history, background and capacity'.

The DCEC notes that there are certain suppliers who always manage to be spot-on with regard to the estimated amounts of the projects they bid for, suggesting an opportunity for connivance and leakage of confidential information to prospective bidders.

To address this situation, the report recommends that councils should develop an information management plan that guarantees security of confidential information and 'ensures correct information classification. There is a need for adherence to best practices during preparation of estimates and tendering,' reads the report.

It reveals that in some cases some submissions were tampered with, suggesting possible connivance by some unscrupulous officers and bidders to disadvantage other suppliers. 

Here, the DCEC recommends that a review of district councils tender regulations be made to comply with the Procurement and Asset Disposal Act for Local Authorities and formulate standardised procurement guidelines to act as a general reference for all council departments.

'The problem of leakage of confidential information also highlights the fact that possibly there are officers who also have interests in certain companies that bid for contracts from other councils.Issues of possible conflict of interest arose during the conduct of the study. These emanated from the fact that adjudication boards comprise of councillors who are business people and who at times are awarded these contracts,' reads the report in part.