In the ongoing public debate, aspects that have been proposed for review in relation to councillors include: the exclusion of councillors from the council tender committees; the policy that permits government industrial cadre to continue in their employment when they become councillors; and the scandalous nomination of councillors.
It is beyond comprehension how our system has for long encouraged what amounts to corruption in the council tendering process. As we understand it, tender committees are basically an adjudication mechanism. Yet it has been an open secret that most councillors own companies or have direct interests in companies that tender for the provision of goods and services to councils. It is clearly a free for all arrangement where councillors parcel out the tenders to themselves, friends and relatives. What rot! Little wonder, therefore that many local government projects are not properly implemented. Most are left unfinished while the perpetrators continue to be awarded more tenders.
