Two eThekwini municipal officials involved in a fraudulent thirty-six million rand toilet tender scandal have been suspended. The officials allegedly authorised pre-payment to four companies which failed to supply toilet facilities to impoverished communities.

The fraud was exposed in a forensic report by the city’s Integrity and Investigative unit. The toilets were meant for poor communities and schools in 31 rural and peri-urban areas.

Two-thousand two-hundred urine diversion toilets were meant to be supplied but the multi-million rand project never got off the ground.

The unit found that three companies were paid over two million rand each, while the fourth was paid more than twenty-eight million rand. The price of the toilets was understood to have been double the market value.

“Action taken includes laying of criminal charges. I wish to clarify that additional work has to be done as a number of these corruption allegations will be under criminal investigation and the municipality will co-operate with various law enforcement agencies that have vested interests in some of the matter, said City Manager Sipho Nzuza.

Opposition parties have condemned the wasteful expenditure.

“Simply, people must be arrested. It’s high time when we report on corruption we arrest people and not only that, that report is a damning report. It’s should not have happened. I fail to understand how the municipality paid contracts without them doing the job,” said KZN DA Leader Zwakele Mncwango.

The investigation recommends that three of the four companies involved be black-listed.

The municipality says more heads are expected to roll.