Public Works rotten with corruption: Matutle

The corruption involving state leasing deals uncovered so far is probably just the tip of the iceberg, the Department of Public Works' acting chief of operations has warned.

Speaking before parliament's police portfolio committee yesterday, Butcher Matutle said the Special Investigating Unit had started probing how the department came to rent a R10.5-million-a-year building for the Independent Complaints Directorate at double the price of the building currently rented for the police watchdog.

Last week, Public Protector Thuli Madonsela said she would investigate the latest "dodgy" lease.

Matutle said: "Our processes at Public Works leading up to the leasing are fundamentally flawed. They need a complete overhaul."

In a bid to clean up the corruption, new Public Works Minister Thulas Nxesi last week banned provincial public works offices from signing and approving leases.

Asked whether Public Works was full of corruption, Matutle said: "Frankly speaking, that is not a wrong impression."

"At Public Works, we don't even have proper filing systems, so there are leases you can't find."

Public Works officials were wasting millions of rands by negotiating long leases with rents that rose by 12% a year, even though the market norm was 8%, he said.

Some officials' lifestyles reflected an income way beyond what they were legitimately earning, Matutle said.

The latest government lease scandal involves the Independent Complaints Directorate paying R882000 a month for its new headquarters, City Forum, in Pretoria, as against the R420000 a month it has been paying at the Struktura building.

Matutle said the signed lease for the cheaper Struktura building had "vanished".

The directorate has asked the Treasury for another R36-million over the next three years to pay the rent for its new HQ.

Property mogul Roux Shabangu has told the police portfolio committee that he sold City Forum in August 2009.