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Free State Department of Roads denies R180 million advance payment to contractor without work done

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The Free State Department of Police, Roads and Transport has disputed allegations made by the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) that the department was making an advanced payment, saying it’s just political point-scoring.

The department denied any knowledge of a R180 million advance payment made to contractors. During a media briefing, it revealed that all the monies paid to contractors were for services rendered.

One of the latest major projects is for the road between Wepener and Dewetsdorp. The project which started in January 2022 and expected to be completed within 24 months, is valued at R329 million and only R45 million has been paid to contractors.

The Department’s Chief Director of Infrastructure Freddy Tokwe says, “The department is still holding security retention which is the monies that the department holds in case of any defects on any road construction project that we have. We will go out and have a look of what has been reported and if there are any defects we do have provisions and measures to attend to that or to cater for defects on the projects.”

KET Civils and Free State’s Roads and Transport department at loggerheads:

The EFF had said it wrote to the office of the Public Protector to investigate alleged corruption relating to the new contractors. It alleged that the department made an advance payment to the contractors, without services being rendered.

The roads include those in dispute before the courts.

Free State EFF secretary Bosanku Msimanga says the public purse should be protected.

Msimanga says, “R180 million is paid to service providers in the province without them providing services. So we are calling on the premier because she made a commitment that she is going to act on corruption. We want her to act on this acting CEO who is confusing his purse with the public purse so we want her to act decisively on the HOD because it cannot be accepted that the public purse is spent without necessarily having seen a value for money.”

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