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- The SIU has been granted an interim order to freeze the pension of former Lepelle Northern Water Board CEO, Phineas Legodi.
- Legodi resigned a few weeks ago.
- The SIU is probing the contract awarded to LTE consulting, where it identified "serious maladministration and malpractice".
The Special Tribunal has granted the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) an interim order to freeze the pension of former Lepelle Northern Water Board CEO, Phineas Legodi.
Legodi resigned from the water board a few weeks ago after being placed on precautionary suspension by the Lepelle interim board in June.
"The first respondent (municipal employees' union retirement fund) is interdicted and restrained from releasing to the second respondent (Legodi) or any other party the money which represents pension and retirement benefits," reads the order, dated 4 September 2020.
This is pending an action which will be instituted within 30 days of the order by the retirement fund against Legodi for the recovery of "financial losses and damages" suffered by the fund "and/or Lepelle Northern Water Board and/or the department of water and sanitation as a result of the alleged illegality, misconduct and acts of dishonesty perpetrated by the second respondent while he was employed by Lepelle Northern Water Board."
In terms of the order, the respondents have to show cause on 19 October 2020, or soon thereafter, why the interim order should not be confirmed.
The SIU is probing the contract awarded to LTE consulting, where it had identified "serious maladministration and malpractice", according to spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago.
Kganyago also said, in November last year, that the unit embarked on a search and seizure at the Lepelle Northern Water Board (LNWB) office.
- Failure to comply with Public Finance Management Act and LNWB supply chain management regulations;
- Failure to heed professional engineering advice;
- Poor project management;
- Poor financial management; and
- Poor record keeping.
Kganyago said the investigation on the Giyani Water Project is at an advanced stage, adding the SIU is doing "a value for money exercise".
"The SIU would like to assure the public that we will not leave any stone unturned in our endeavour to recover money that might have been misused," Kganyago added.
According to Mail and Guardian, Legodi was suspended, pending an investigation into alleged maladministration at the entity a month after an interim board was appointed by Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation Minister Lindiwe Sisulu.
- Compiled by Jeanette Chabalala
