The estate, the millions and Patricia De Lille

Meddling in administration issues has come back to haunt the Minister of Public Works, Patricia De Lille: her department is investigating the irregular award of agricultural leases that she approved in December.

The minister has also been accused by disgruntled department staff members of pressuring senior officials, through her special adviser Nadine Fourie, to resolve a 40 million rand wage dispute with a construction company, despite concerns. that the same company had allegedly overcharged the department. for around R39 million.

the Mail and tutor He has also seen emails showing that De Lille ordered that two requests from entities in the Namakwa region of the North Cape be brought to his office for approval, skipping several steps, including approval by the accountant.

As a result, the department went so far as to draft contracts for the parties, before halting the process and ordering an investigation after the irregularities were detected.

These included that the land in question was not tendered for lease and, allegedly, did not go through the supply chain process.

This latest scandal follows De Lille’s shocking admission that he instructed officials on which company to appoint to handle media services for the department. She told News24 on Wednesday that while she urged officials to appoint Cape Town-based Oryx Media to conduct media monitoring, she did not mean that officials should break the law.

But its approval of farm leases, on December 18 last year, breached legislated processes that stipulate that due diligence on leases longer than nine years and 11 months must be followed at the CEO level prior to minister approval. .

The suspended director general of the public works department, Sam Vukela, did not see the presentation until February, when it was presented to him for approval.

Vukela signed it with the following comment: “This agreement is really unusual that it must first be presented to the executive authority and after the fact it is referred to the accountant for consideration. I need an explanation of what and how such things happen. “

The leases are part of the government’s program to lease state-owned land at rates favorable to deserving beneficiaries as part of boosting black participation in agriculture. Vukela’s concerns were so serious that the entire process is now the subject of an internal investigation.

the M&G He also discovered that one of the directors of one of the entities, León Octubre, is a career official with more than 30 years of service. October, who retired as a director in the Northern Cape agriculture department last August, is one of five directors at Luvandreo Farming, a company approved to lease a 1,000 hectare portion of Farm Abbasas at R1,600 a month for 25 years. .

He referred all questions to the department. The agriculture department confirmed that October was a director in the Namakwa district before resigning last August.

According to records, the company was registered only in July last year and de Lille gave it permission to lease the land five months later.

Luvandreo’s signatory on his application is Luwenn Cloete, 25, who shares the same last name as Gideon Cloete of the Cloete Family Trust, which is the second entity approved by De Lille on the same day last December. The family trust was leased 1000 hectares from Farm Kabis for 25 years at R1,500 per month.

Gideon Cloete denied having any knowledge of Luwenn Cloete, but admitted that he was familiar with October.

The farms were mentioned by former CEO Vukela in his court request to prevent De Lille from proceeding with disciplinary action against them.

Vukela was suspended by De Lille in July after two reports, on corruption in state funeral expenses and irregular appointments of senior staff in the department, recommended action against him.

In her request, Vukela accused the minister of acting against her because he resisted her illegal instructions, even in the case of farms. “It is a matter of commenting that that same day, the minister signed two land leases in the Namaqua [sic] region to two people with the surname Cloete without following due process of supply chain management, ”he said.

“The above incident showed the degree to which the minister ignored the applicable administrative process of the department, which relates to supply chain management and its implications for the department’s bank overdraft, as payments continued to be made to service providers while the department’s clients who are receiving the benefit of the service were not paying ”.

This week, the minister’s office said De Lille would not be able to respond to media inquiries on the matter, but sent his response to Vukela’s affidavit.

In his response documents, De Lille says that Vukela does not understand that land leases are not subject to supply chain management processes and that ministerial approval is required.

Minister’s cold war with department staff

The employees also accused de Lille of pressuring them to process a payment of 40 million rand to a company called Nolitha Construction, which was awarded a contract to renovate the environmental department’s research facility, Sanae IV, in the antartida.

The project saw Nolitha’s team join South African scientists and oceanographers researching the island alongside other nations to build new infrastructure, as well as maintain the existing house for the team.

The department objected in 2018 when Nolitha claimed an additional 40 million rand on top of the 183 million rand that had already been paid.

According to documents seen by the Mail and tutor, the extra money was to cover the fourth season (the contract was for three working seasons between 2015 and 2018) which was agreed in principle between Nolitha, the project director and the project agent, although there was no signed modification order by the Department.

Sources allege that Nolitha claimed the insurance without any proof. Additionally, they claimed site office costs when there was no site, and overtime sheets showed staff working 24 hours in one day.

“We also found out that the project manager and agent approved another R4 million for no reason. But the minister and her people sat on us for months demanding that the payment be paid, ”said the source.

the M&G you’ve seen emails from De Lille’s special adviser, Nadine Fourie, pressuring staff to resolve the matter, even though she’s in court. In an email on February 3, he says: “I am seeing the minister on Wednesday morning in Cape Town, and I have been asked again to brief her on this case.”

In December, the Western Cape Superior Court had granted a temporary order for the department to pay Nolitha against a bank guarantee of the same amount pending an outcome in the matter.

Nolitha managing director Faizal Pillay said the department was refusing to pay to cover its failure to implement a variance order for season four under the agreement in principle.

Public works spokesman Thami Mchunu said the payment was withheld to ensure that the payments were in line with the work performed, from the start of the contract. “The withholding of payment has no direct link to the modification order; the items in dispute included work that took place from season one through season three. “

The source also said the officials finally gave in to pressure from De Lille and paid the 40 million rand to the state prosecutor last month without the guarantee. The money is still with them, Pillay said, due to delays in obtaining collateral due to Covid-19 and other challenges.