Former city manager Dr Michael Sutcliffe has said that the Manase report’s biggest fault was poor investigation.
|||Durban - Former city manager Dr Michael Sutcliffe has said that the Manase report’s biggest fault was poor investigation.
The forensic report on alleged corruption, fraud, financial irregularities and maladministration in the municipality was finally made public on Tuesday after numerous calls for its release.
Top officials, including former mayor, Obed Mlaba, Sutcliffe, head of treasury, Krish Kumar, former infrastructure head, Derek Naidoo, and former head of housing at the municipality, Cogi Pather, were implicated in the report.
The report also found that 10 councillors and 123 municipal officials had been in business with the city.
Speaking to the Daily News on his feelings on the report, Sutcliffe said that the municipality’s biggest fault in handling the report was publicly exposing individuals without allowing the principle of audi alteram partem (that no one should be condemned unheard) to be applied.
Sutcliffe said that the MEC for Corporate Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) Nomusa Dube’s biggest fault in handling the report was that she did not read Manase’s own claims that the report was “hugely” limited.
“She should have, instead asked each of the named persons to respond and only suggested actions after hearing both sides. The top officials named had in almost all the cases never been asked to respond to things that Manase has made claims about,” he said.
Responding to questions regarding councillors and officials trading with the city, Sutcliffe said all the transgressions had been picked up early.
“We had already sent reports to the Speakers office (James Nxumalo at the time) well before the Manase was even started,” he said.
Sutcliffe said that it was also not true that he had contravened section 34 of the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act by not reporting fraudulent and corrupt activities.
He also said that it was not true that he had failed to recover R1.1 million from the relevant companies and individuals implicated in these cases.
“How do you report a loss when none occurred? Even the AG has not picked up such a loss. How do you recover money which apparently was not lost?” he said.
Sutcliffe said that personally and with some of his former officials and their families, their reputations had been tarnished.
“We have had our names dragged through the mud with inferences made which are hurtful, untruthful and continue to impact on us even though we stood for the truth and against corruption and abuse of office,” he said.
When asked whether he would lodge a complaint against the Manase team, Sutcliffe said that it all depended on how the case unfolds.
“They (Manase & Associates) may argue that their report should not have been released by the MEC (Dube) given the warnings they give in the introduction that it was incomplete,” he said.
With the report finally being made public, Sutcliffe said that he was saddened that all the great work done by the city had not been recognised.
mpume.madlala@inl.co.za
Daily News