. Contracts were awarded to employees and councillors or other state officials contravening regulation 44 of the SCM which prohibits the awards of contracts to persons or entities owned or managed by them if they are in the service of the municipality or the service of any other state institution. The expenditure incurred in this regard is considered irregular expenditure amounting to R5.87 million. The legislated requirements with regard to declaration of interest were not adhered to. The excuse advanced for the failure to comply with disclosure of interest is that municipalities do not have access to information on persons employed in other state institutions hence they only rely on the declarations provided by the suppliers;