Special unit still digging into controversial Bitou finances

30 November 2005

Leon Bekker

THE Special Investigations Unit is still in the process of finalising its report to the Western Cape department of local government on the unit’s probe into the financial affairs of the Bitou Council.

Local Government MEC Richard Dyantyi told the provincial legislature he anticipated that his department’s report on Bitou’s finances in 2003/04 would be completed by yesterday, the end of November.

However, yesterday a senior official in Dyantyi’s department said the report had not yet been completed because the results of the SIU’s probe had not yet been received.

The official, who asked not to be named, explained that the department had called in the SIU because the unit had forensic capabilities which the department needed.

He anticipated that the department would only be in position to hand its report to Dyantyi by the middle of December.

DA MPL Alan Winde said Dyantyi undertook yesterday to inform him of developments as soon as he had had the opportunity to study the report. He said he would be putting questions to Dyantyi on the issue at the next sitting of the provincial legislature.

The SIU is now the investigating arm of the Assets Forfeiture Unit.

An SIU team visited Plettenberg Bay towards the end of October to sift through documentation and conduct interviews in connection with the Auditor-General’s critical report on Bitou’s finances for the 2003/04 financial year.

At the time, a source in the Assets Forfeiture Unit’s Cape Town headquarters said the unit was “under a lot of pressure” from Dyantyi to finalise its enquiries. The A-G’s report led to a series of hearings by the Western Cape’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa).

The report put the spotlight on a group of senior municipal officials, and found that R122 000 in credit card expenses, claimed by municipal manager George Seitisho and mayor Euan Wildeman, were unsupported by any documentation.

The audit also highlighted a long list of financial practices which led to a call by the DA for the suspension of Wildeman and Seitisho.

Source: The Herald

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