The City of Ekurhuleni (CoE) has shed light on the reports of at least R65m of inventory gathering dust at the city’s Energy Department depots.
This comes after the Freedom Front Plus (FF Plus) claimed poor prioritisation in the procurement of energy supplies is killing the department’s performance.
Denise Janse van Rensburg of the FF Plus said their party obtained an audit report from the department that revealed at least R65m worth of inventory is gathering dust at the depots.
She stated some of the multiple millions of rand worth of inventory are R14m worth of less sought-after items that remain unused and gathered dust as far as 2022.
The basic and most sought-after items such as light bulbs are not available, negatively affecting service delivery and public safety.
The Boksburg Advertiser last week reached out to the CoE for comment on this claim, and this it said:
According to a report by the Energy Department, there is currently R65m worth of inventory at the Boksburg warehouse.
There is also a further R14m of inventory that was last used in 2022. Is this true, if not, please shed some light on this matter.
There is an energy depot in Boksburg and behind it is a finance store where they draw most of the day-to-day materials from time to time.
A recent walkthrough at the finance stores revealed four 500 kVA mini-subs were in the yard and about 10 drums of cables.
These are day-to-day items used by the department and in some instances, shared amongst all other depots throughout the city.
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The amounts highlighted in this article cannot be confirmed as factual. It should be noted that some items at the finance stores are seldom used, like streetlight fittings of high-pressure sodium (HPS), now replaced with energy-efficient light fittings.
These will still be available at stores and drawn as and when required for spares. Several items needed for maintenance and emergency repairs are out of stock, negatively impacting service delivery and public safety.
Why are these products in low-demand procurement while essential inventory is not? How is the city planning to correct this or get the respective branches to get their priorities right to meet the demand?
To some extent, this may be true but as indicated, material is shared among all depots. What may not be available in Boksburg stores can be drawn from another store within the city. It is not practical for stores to keep all materials for spares and day-to-day operations.
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Some unused inventory gathering dust apparently includes prepaid single-phase meters valued at R25m; diesel at R15m; green refuse bags of R13m; and network rotators costing R13,6m. Is this correct?
About single-phase meters, the department is mandated to respond to meter-related queries. For this reason, stock is kept at stores to attend to queries timeously. The value of single-phase meters and meter-related stock is R20.27m.
The Data Concentrators (Airs) are for the IMMS System and were procured in 2023/24 to replace the ageing existing Airs in Thembisa as the budget allows and used for spares in the event of failure.
It must also be noted the city does not procure the Airs every year and the energy department replenishes the stock only when it is low. The number of the Airs in stock is reducing as we replace the old units and faulty ones on site.
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