ICD grilled over ‘mess’ regarding lease bill

After being sent packing from Parliament on Tuesday, the Independent Complaints Directorate will have to reappear before the police oversight committee next week – with the Department of Public Works and the National Treasury – to account for the “mess” in procuring a new headquarters that has resulted in a lease bill almost twice what it budgeted.

The ICD could not provide satisfactory answers on Tuesday to questions about its lease arrangement with the Department of Public Works for its Pretoria headquarters.

Its officials battled to explain their role in the procurement of the disputed lease agreement with controversial property mogul Roux Shabangu and why the directorate had occupied the building without regard for its budget.

A frustrated chairwoman of the police committee, Sindi Chikunga, cut the meeting short, saying: “This is a mess, an absolute mess… The information you gave us is really shocking. I’m not sure I’m impressed with the ICD… I don’t believe continuing with this meeting will take us anywhere.”

The ICD is paying R880 000 a month to lease a building it says was not its first choice. It blamed the Public Works Department for giving it the runaround and keeping it in the dark about the inflated costs and the fact that a lease had already been entered into before it agreed to swop buildings with the Human Settlements Department, which was supposed to have occupied the building.

The ICD moved into the City Forum building in Pretoria in September last year at a cost of R10.6 million a year. This was despite a previous figure of R3.8m having been established for another building – the Structura.

The City Forum building was owned by Shabangu – the man at the centre of the police building drama which culminated in President Jacob Zuma axing public works minister Gwen Mahlangu-Nkabinde and suspending national police commissioner General Bheki Cele.

ICD spokesman Moses Dlamini said on Tuesday the directorate had paid R5m over the past 12 months. The building covers 7 614m², double the floor space the ICD had said it required. ICD chief executive officer Francois Beukman said Public Works had identified three buildings for it to view, and the directorate had identified the Structura building as being most suitable.

But Public Works then said the company that owned it was not BEE compliant and it could therefore not enter into a lease agreement with it.

However, a few days later, Public Works notified the ICD that the company was now BEE complaint and that it could move in at cost of R323 682.40 a month, or about R3.8m a year – less than its budget of R6.1m.

However, Public Works had indicated several times that the Structura building was not yet ready for occupation, said Beukman.

“City Forum then came up. They informed us that the Human Settlements Department was supposed to move in but that we could move in. We decided to view the building; we didn’t know who the landlord was… We said we were willing to move into the building on condition that the R700 000 paid for cabling (installed in the Structura building) was paid to us.” - Pretoria News