Head of the North West Department of Public Works, Roads and Transport, Nic van Staden and Chief Financial Officer, Kwekwu Odame-Takyi, are scheduled to appear before a disciplinary committee tomorrow, Monday, 19 April to answer to charges of gross misconduct.
Both were suspended four months ago and subsequently charged soon after a forensic investigation by PricewaterHouseCoopers (PWC), into the roads directorate, found alleged irregular awarding of multi-million rands worth of road tenders.
Within three months of the 2009 to 2010 financial year that has ended, the roads directorate that was headed by Chief Director Eddie Thebe, spent 100 percent of its R525 million roads capital project budget. Also, more than R1.5 billion allocated for roads capital projects for the next period of three years, medium term expenditure framework (MTEF), was discovered to have been committed already.
The disciplinary committee proceedings against Thebe, who pleaded not guilty on 10 charges of gross misconduct, were concluded on Tuesday last week and the ruling on his case is expected on Friday this week.
Enquiries:
Matshube Mfoloe
Tel: 018 387 2447
Cell: 082 305 4594
E-mail: mmfoloe@nwpg.gov.za
Issued by: Department of Public Works, Roads and Transport, North West Provincial Government
18 April 2010
