KNYSNA NEWS - The service level agreement (SLA) signed between the municipality and Knysna & Partners (K&P) is legal for various reasons, says municipal manager Kam Chetty.
This was emphasised during a meeting held with him on Tuesday 10 October.
A front page report last week, 12 October, about the deputy mayor Peter Myers facing a DA vote of no confidence, touched on Myer's reasons for saying the SLA was illegal.
At the end of the report, in a prominent yellow block, it was stated that a story about the SLA would be written for this week, 19 October.
MM takes exception
Grave exception has since been taken by Chetty about his side of the SLA not being included in last week's newspaper.
This message was conveyed through Knysna municipal communications support contractor Fran Kirsten who wrote, "Municipal manager Kam Chetty's PA is out-of-office and he has requested that I forward the following to you.
"Dear Elaine, I notice that despite receiving detailed comment pertaining to the SLA you chose not to include my comment in the front page article 'End of the road for deputy mayor?'
This you did despite stating, 'This is all logical,' after listening to the explanation of why the SLA was not illegal as alleged by councillor Peter Myers.
Besides not using any of my comments, you write in a block below the article: 'Chetty has explained in depth why the SLA with Knysna & Partners is not illegal, but this is complicated. As a meeting with Chetty was only held late on Tuesday afternoon, on a production day, this story will be written for the next issue'."
Kirsten's email further stated, "According to the Press Council's Press Code: 2.2, news shall be presented in context and in a balanced manner, without any intentional or negligent departure from the facts whether by distortion, exaggeration or misrepresentation, material omissions, or summarisation," followed by, "I am of the opinion that your publication had more than enough time to include my comment within the body of said article.
The exclusion of this comment has resulted in your reporting being unbalanced, resulting in a distortion of the facts.
"I ask that you publicly apologise for not including my comment within the body of this week's article, "End of the road for deputy mayor?" stating that although you had ample time to include my comment you neglected to do so," concluded Kirsten's email.
Chetty's full comment
"The Knysna-Plett Herald neglected to include Knysna municipal manager Kam Chetty's comment pertaining to the legality of the K&P service level agreement (SLA).
"We reiterate that the current SLA between the Knysna municipality and K&P complies with the applicable legislative requirements, to say otherwise is inaccurate.
"Additionally, it ignores the urgent need to rebuild the economy of Knysna since the fire disaster," said Chetty.
At a routine meeting between Chetty and Knysna-Plett Herald (KPH), which is held on a regular basis to discuss pertinent issues, Chetty explained the SLA from his and the municipality's perspective.
"It is common knowledge that local tourism is critical for the economic growth, employment creation and prosperity of Knysna.
"These are some of the most important objectives in the IDP which the municipality must follow.
"When I was newly appointed to the position of municipal manager on 1 July, we had some tough decisions to consider following the devastating fires of 7 June," he said.
K&P who was key in the organising of the Oyster Festival, was about to retrench its staff on the eve of the Oyster Festival – Knysna's biggest annual event that brings much-needed tourism and other business to the local economy."
Chetty explained that the risks associated with the sudden disruption to the Oyster Festival, the operations of tourism visitor offices, tourism promotion, and so on would have had a major negative impact on tourism and the economy of Knysna.
Chetty reiterated that two opposing legal opinions were provided to the municipality.
The one suggested that the municipality must follow a procurement process, while the other, obtained by K&P, indicated that the previous process followed by the municipality was compliant. Such conflict is ultimately decided by the courts, when this is necessary.
"We were looking at over 2 000 people unemployed as a direct result of the fires. Various enterprises had burnt down and tourists were unsure of future bookings within Knysna, directly impacting on our main economic driver, tourism." Chetty continued, "Looking at ways to salvage the situation, I believe we took a responsible decision: let us protect the Knysna economy, create employment and show the rest of the world that Knysna was open for business."
As recommended by the first opinion, a service level agreement was signed with K&P in July 2017 in terms of regulation 36 of Local Government: Municipal Finance Management Act 2003.
This is also consistent with the Knysna Municipal Supply Chain Policy 2017/2017 Section 19.5.11.2.
The SLA of R4-million was entered into with K&P for a period of one year, not for the requested three years as originally requested.
The conditions in the SLA are fairly onerous, and requires providing the municipality with monthly reports, and a payment of R1-million per quarter.
"Councillors are legally prohibited from participation in procurement decisions," stressed Chetty. In terms of regulation 36(1)(a) of Local Government: Municipal Finance Management Act, 2003 Municipal Supply Chain Management Regulations, due to the fire it was considered an emergency.
A supply chain management policy may allow the accounting officer -
(a) to dispense with the official procurement processes established by the policy and to procure any required goods or services through any convenient process, which may include direct negotiations, but only
- in an emergency;
- if such goods or services are produced or available from a single provider only;
- for the acquisition of special works of art or historical objects where specifications are difficult to compile;
- acquisition of animals for zoos; or
- in any other exceptional case where it is impractical or impossible to follow the official procurement processes."
Deputy mayor's vote of no confidence from last week
In the article last week, it was reported that the chairman of the DA's federal executive (FedEx), James Selfe, had given the go-ahead to the Knysna DA to proceed with the vote of no confidence against Myers.
Also on the front page was a comment from Selfe saying there was "a breakdown between Myers and the caucus", which is why this decision had been made.
This story ran over to page 2, at which point, under subhead "Myers against tourism SLA" the subject of the SLA came up.
What was written last week was, "Myers recently fell foul of the DA caucus at a meeting at which the council voted to sign a new SLA with the town's tourism agency Knysna & Partners.
At this meeting, Myers made his point clear – that signing the R4-million contract with Knysna & Partners for another year is illegal in terms of the Municipal Management Financial Act section 173 and that it should have been put out to tender.
"At a meeting on 11 August, when the DA caucus voted for the SLA to be granted, Myers walked out of the meeting thus absenting himself from voting.
"Although the SLA was on the agenda and had yet to be ratified, it had already been signed on 11 July by municipal manager Kam Chetty, rendering it in Myer's opinion 'illegal both procedurally and substantively [the actual content of the agreement being questionable]'."
This was the only part of a two-page article that referred to the SLA as opinion from other councillors and DA officials was quoted and used.
At the time of going to press the DA caucus had not held a vote of no confidence in Myers.
Read a previous article: End of the road for Deputy Mayor?
ARTICLE: ELAINE KING, KNYSNA-PLETT HERALD EDITOR
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