Pretoria – Public Works Minister Thulas Nxesi has dismissed reports that he failed to cooperate with the National Treasury investigation into the Nkandla matter.
The article, published in the Sowetan on Tuesday, gives the impression that the Minister or the department was attempting to stifle the investigation by Treasury.
In a statement, the Minister said he dismisses the insinuation with contempt.
“Nothing could be further from the truth. To set the record straight, the department cooperated and supplied all relevant information in its possession to the investigators appointed by Treasury.”
The Minister said he is not responsible for missing documents or information that was in a poor state.
“It is public knowledge that there was maladministration in this project and missing documents was one of the many problems.
“It is critical to note that our own professional architect alerted the Special Investigating Unit and Treasury as early as April that the consultant’s drawings of the project contained insufficient and scant information that would make the cost calculation difficult,” he explained.
It should be noted that Minister Nxesi took over the portfolio when the Nkandla project was implemented and completed.
Due to his own concerns, the Minister instituted an investigation that made several recommendations, including that the matter be referred to the SIU for further investigation.
The department cooperated with all investigation teams, including the Office of the Public Protector, SIU and National Treasury.
The National Treasury was ordered, by the Constitutional Court in March, to calculate a reasonable cost of the non-security upgrades to President Jacob Zuma’s Nkandla home.
It had up until Tuesday to submit the report, which it did on Monday.
The Presidency has said it is studying the report and will comment on it thereafter.
The non-security upgrades which were mentioned in Public Protector Thuli Madonsela's Secure in Comfort report included the swimming pool, chicken run, kraal and the amphitheatre. - SAnews.gov.za
