With the 2025/2026 financial year almost halfway through and a key Nelson Mandela Bay municipality directorate having spent less than 10% of its capital budget, councillors were outraged to learn that the city had not appointed a contractor to build toilets.
The annual contract to construct toilets in underserviced wards in the metro expired in April.
The Bay’s infrastructure and engineering acting executive director, Barry Martin, was pressed into admitting the status of the tender during a committee meeting on Thursday.
The committee was examining the directorate’s grant spending.
The appointment of the contractor became a point of contention when Ward 19 councillor Gamalihleli Maqula challenged the explanation in Martin’s report for the low expenditure of three grants.
According to Martin’s report, the city had spent just 11% of its R292m urban settlements development grant, 5% of the R7m informal settlement upgrading programme and 8% of the R339m regional bulk infrastructure grant.
The directorate’s overall capital grant expenditure byOctober was at 8%.
The report attributed the low expenditure to bureaucratic delays within the supply chain management unit and the budget and treasury directorate.
It said supply chain management had delayed awarding new contracts for tenders that expired in the 2023/2024 financial year, that the budget and treasury directorate took too long to approve bid committee items, and that the bid committee itself did not meet regularly, and when it did, its members lacked the experience to give clear direction.
It also flagged discrepancies between capital and operating accounts when approving items.
Maqula, however, said the electricity and energy directorate — which had allocations from the same grants — was making progress despite having to work through the same SCM channels.
“The electricity and energy directorate is using the same supply chain unit.
“The parks subdirectorate has depleted its ISUP [informal settlement upgrading programme].
“The sports, recreation, arts and culture department is building a multipurpose centre.
“Why, when it comes to this directorate, does everything fall apart?
“We have not built toilets for the past five years, while human settlements have been pushing ahead with upgrades.
“We keep allocating money to this directorate, and nothing gets done.
“Can the acting executive director tell us whether we have a contract for building toilets?
“I know we do not have a contract in place.
“This is what they do here — there is no planning ahead. They know the contract is ending, and then they want to push for a deviation,” he said.
After consulting his team, Martin conceded that no contract was in place and that the tender was still with the bid committee.
Outraged Ward 18 councillor Nkululeko Makhwenkwe said: “I do not know how many times I have been to you in a week about this contract, which means all this time you have been lying to me.”
The Herald