Pretoria - The Hawks in Limpopo said the investigations of corruption and maladministration, related to tenders worth R30 million in the Ba-Phalaborwa Municipality, were still far from being complete.
Speaking to Pretoria News yesterday, police spokesperson Captain Matimba Maluleke said there were many leads in the investigations that were pointing them in the right direction.
Last month the Hawks raided the municipal offices and seized documents as part of an investigation into the R30 million tender saga.
He said: “As part of ongoing investigations into the allegations of fraud and corruption on the awarding of tenders by the Ba-Phalaborwa Municipality, we have conducted a search and seizure operation at the municipal offices, the municipality is under investigation for awarding tenders worth more than R30 million, without following due processes. During the operation we seized documents and laptops."
These investigations include the pool of consulting engineers and service providers for infrastructure development projects and equipment.
The DA in the province last week demanded consequence management against officials allegedly involved in mismanagement and corruption related the investigations.
DA provincial leader Jacques Smalle said in a statement: "The DA welcomes the raid by the Hawks on the Ba-Phalaborwa Municipality, after the auditor-general revealed financial mismanagement and maladministration to the tune of R450 million over the past two years, also the inability by the local municipality to investigate R99.6m of unauthorised expenditure.
“It is clear that, in this municipality, there is no consequence management against those officials who made themselves guilty of this financial mismanagement and corruption."
Municipal spokesperson Jonas Mahesu said they were waiting for the investigations to conclude, but conceded that they were worried about the allegations.
"What is worrying is that we are the third sphere of government, we need to abide by the Municipal Finance Management Act, so that we do things accordingly. The Hawks raided our offices, they are in possession of information. We are waiting for them to conclude their investigations.
No arrests have been made.
Related Video:
Pretoria News