accounting officer

Mr Mnisi confirms that the BAC does not have the power to cancel a tender; it only has power to recommend cancellation, whereas the accounting officer has the power to cancel.

“The BAC has power to recommend, the accounting officer has the power to cancel. He has the authority not to agree to the recommendation that the BAC has.”

The accounting officer has the authority to request to see the contents of a specific bid specification before the advert goes out.

“before advert goes out, that is the specification. At that point in time, if he wants, he could request a specific document and say I want to see the contents of this specification. He has that authority”

The accounting officer, having approved the bid specification, cannot later change his mind and say the bid specification was wrong because the Municipal Manager would have already signed off on the document.

“the accounting officer can not, having approved the bid specification ... say, oh, by the way, I have changed my mind, and now I am saying there was everything wrong with the bid specification. Surely, that can not be, because, as you say, the Municipal Manager will already have signed off on that document. They can not change their mind. Surely not.”

The accounting officer has to analyze the cost of compliance and if there are irregular expenditures, he will be held accountable.

“We have to analyse the cost of compliance ... if the there is irregular expenditure ... He will be held accountable. So the powers are with him, he can decide.”

Signing off on the document at the beginning means the accounting officer says there are no irregularities with the document.

“Signing off on that document right at the beginning ... is an indication that the accounting officer is saying there is nothing wrong with this document ... by signing off, the accounting officer is saying there are no irregularities.”

The accounting officer is ultimately responsible for the procurement environment in the City and ensuring bid specifications are in place.

“The accounting officer is ultimately responsible for the procurement environment in the City. He is ultimately responsible for ensuring that bid specifications are in place.”

The accounting officer has a duty to evaluate reasons for irregularities identified by the Bid Adjudication Committee (BAC) and can concur or refer the matter back to avoid irregular expenditure.

“At the tail end of their process, if we identify an irregularity, we cannot ignore that ... the accounting officer on the recommendations of BAC then takes that decision after analysing that ... he concurred the reasons and he approved.”

Once an organ of state like the accounting officer has taken a decision, they do not have the power to revisit or undo it; to do so would require going to court.

“once an organ of state has taken a decision on something, they do not have the power to revisit that decision. They would have to go elsewhere. Court, to be specific, to say, oh, by the way, I made a mistake by signing off on that document. Court, can you please set it aside?”

The accounting officer, even if signing off without picking up irregularities, must raise valid errors and take the decision to cancel the bid; the City will then deal with any court challenge from bidders accordingly.

“Even if you pick up an error from the beginning of the process, you have a duty to raise that ... If it is an error that is valid, that might lead to a regularity, you cannot ignore that. We do take a decision to cancel that bid. We then leave that on us on any supplier who says, no, but you should not have cancelled this bid ... If a bidder chooses to take the City to court, we will then deal with it at that stage ... That is the process that we follow at the City from a practical perspective.”

The accounting officer states that he cannot accept that the City Manager's powers derive solely from the SCM policy because the accounting officer is accountable for all aspects of the City.

“I cannot accept that. What I can put to you is that the accounting officer is accountable for all aspects of the City.”

The accounting officer has the power to cancel a tender if issues emanate from the bid specification process.

“if there issues that emanate in relation to this bid as a result issues in the bid specification, the accounting officer do have the power to cancel that.”

At the stage when documents were lost during the transfer process, recommendations were made and sent to the accounting officer, but no specific individual was recalled to have been held accountable.

“At this point in time, I do not recall ... So at this stage, we make recommendations and we send them through to the accounting officer. At this point in time, I do not recall”

The accounting officer has the power to refer matters back to BAC if necessary and approve or disapprove BAC's conclusions on awards.

“an accounting officer perspective , Chair , where the BAC would conclude on an award . The accounting officer has got the power to refer that back and say , I am referring this back ... If we respond accordingly , the accounting officer then okays that response and approves .”

The process for extension of expired bids begins with user departments submitting formal requests to the Bid Adjudication Committee where MR MNISI serves as Chairperson, and the BAC makes recommendations but does not take final decisions; final approval rests with the accounting officer.

“The process, Chair, commences with the user department submitting a formal request for extension to the Bid Adjudication Committee , which I serve as the Chairperson. The Bid Adjudication Committee makes recommendations and does not take any final decisions firstly. Secondly, the recommendations are made by BAC and are not decisions of any specific individual who serve on that committee. ... The final decision in this respect, of course, of approval of any such extensions does rest with the accounting officer.”

The probity report was provided to the Accounting Officer who initiated a proactive forensic assurance review exercise starting 15 April 2025, completed 23 September 2025.

“an indication that was provided to the Accounting Officer that this tender would undergo proactive forensic assurance review exercise ... The Accounting Officer was notified on the 15th of April 2025 ... completed by Group Audit and Risk by the 23rd of September 2025”

An Accounting Officer can cancel an invitation to bid due to changed circumstances such as no longer needing goods or services, no funds being available, or no acceptable bids received.

“that as an Accounting Officer may cancel an invitation to bid owing to changed circumstances ... One, the recouled be no longer need for the goods and services to be provided. Two, funds could not be available. Three, there were no acceptable bids that were received.”

The probity process caused delays after the BEC process concluded on 11 April 2025 before finalising the report for submission.

“there was a considerable amount of time that was allocated from the 4th of April ... probity reports submitted to the Accounting Officer”

A financial upliftment process was started and subsequently approved to address a shortfall in the Watchman Services budget, recommended by the Chief of Police, CFO, and approved by the accounting officer.

“We started the process of upliftment and that upliftment process was subsequently approved. It is recommended by the Chief of Police, it is recommended by the CFO, it is signed off and approved by the accounting officer.”

The extension of the tender was approved by the Bid Adjudication Committee (BAC), the approval process involves a committee discussion and recommendation signed off by the Chairperson and the accounting officer.

“the extension was approved by the Chairperson of the BAC ... the report is presented by the department to the committee. The committee does obviously discuss the matter between themselves and then it is recommended and the Chairperson of the committee signs off on the report as a recommendation to the accounting officer and then the accounting officer signs off based on the recommendation from the Chairperson”

There is a suggestion in chats that the Chairperson of the BAC, Mr Mnisi, was influenced to ensure there is no award and that extensions result in incumbents continuing services, potentially indicating that approvals may be simulated rather than genuine.

“Some of which suggested that it was suggested to Mr Mnisi that make sure that there is no award and that there are extensions the upshot of which would obviously be that the incumbents continue rendering services... So the short point I want to make is that unbeknown to a City Manager, the accounting officer, the possibility cannot be discounted that they may actually be signing off on something that is simulated.”