A picture began to emerge of how the Free State 'asbestos heist' contract was sliced during Friday's sitting of the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture.

A businessman who was subcontracted to assess and audit Free State asbestos housing units, says he charged 10% of the overall fee charged by the main contractor to the provincial Department of Human Settlements, according to News24.

ORI Group director Abel Manyike was testifying before Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo, chairperson of the commission.

The focus was on the R255m asbestos audit project in the province.

A joint venture between Gauteng-based engineering consultancy firm Blackhead Consulting and Diamond Hill Trading 71, scored the contract in 2014 for the ‘audit and assessment of asbestos housing units’.

‘Would it be correct to say that if the Free State department of human settlements invited bids openly, you could have put in the bid to do the job and what you would have charged may well have been exactly what you charged for doing this job, would it be correct to say that? Or is the position that if you had been the main contractor, you would also have charged maybe R250m?’ Zondo asked.

Manyike answered: ‘I would have done that chair; I would have partnered with someone with financial muscle simply because before (government) awards jobs of this nature, they look at your financial position.’

He also told Zondo that charging 10% was ‘fair’ and ‘profitable’.

The joint venture sub-contracted the work to Master Trade who, in turn, sub-contracted to Manyike's company. But Manyike told Zondo that Master Trade did not have ‘the expertise’ to do the work.

‘I don't know if Blackhead was aware of that ... He has always been a social facilitator,’ Manyike testified.

Full News24 report

Manyike’s ORI Group was subcontracted to conduct the door-to-door assessments of Free State properties. This constituted the ‘actual’ work of the multi-million rand project insofar as the audit (and not removal) was concerned, says a Daily Maverick report.

The full figure for the project was over R200m.

As a subcontractor, Manyike personally anticipated R11m for project management. For perspective: the field workers he hired received R6.50 per house they assessed.

Advocate Paul Pretorius, the evidence leader, asked Manyike how many ‘foot soldiers’ Manyike employed and what qualifications they had to assess the presence of asbestos in tens of thousands of Free State homes.

Manyike said he dispatched 184 field workers, who were matriculants. They apparently demonstrated the ability to read and write, also understanding during interviews.

‘We could train 28 people. Four hours would be enough to train them,’ said Manyike on preparing the workers to conduct the assessments. After a mere four hours of training ‘we would follow them for the whole week and see how they are performing’ on site.

In other words, notes the DM report, the actual on-the-ground work involved in the audit with a price tag of over R200m was conducted by field workers with some secondary education, who received only four hours of initial training and received R6.50 per house viewed.

Full Daily Maverick report