Former South Fulton Purchasing Manager Speaks Out After Current Mayor Faces Misspending Backlash

In two months, Malcolm Whichard uncovered extreme levels of financial abuse.

The City of South Fulton, Georgia’s purchasing manager for two months broke his silence over Mayor Khalid Kamau’s allegations of financial abuse, WSB-TV reported.

The city council filed an ethics complaint against Kamau over his spending in January 2024.

During his time at the office, Malcolm Whichard said he uncovered extreme levels of financial abuse. He remembered when Kamau, now known as Mayor Kobi, asked to purchase $15,000 worth of furniture from IKEA. Prior to successfully winning a wrongful termination suit, Whichard was fired for allegedly enforcing the city’s P-card (corporate credit card) policy.

South Fulton’s mayor is under investigation for purchasing order expenses dating back to 2022.

“There’s just a lack of oversight,” Whichard said, after audits showed a $19,000 purchase order for an unapproved media lab where, under city ordinance rules, purchases over $2,500 must be approved by the city manager. A trail of unapproved flights—one to Paris and another to Africa—for Kamau and two employees, was also uncovered.

Collectively, the flights cost the city over $8,000. One city official claimed the city is investigating why some purchases weren’t approved by either the current interim purchase manager or the city manager.

Kamau walked out of a city council meeting when he was questioned about the charged expenses, specifically the 20-day trip to Africa. The council denied the mayor’s request to present international groups he recruited during the meeting and booted the presentation off the agenda, frustrating Kamau.

According to CBS Austin, after Councilmember Carmalitha Gumbs told him the questioning was “about doing the people’s business and not for you to explain your international hiccups,” the mayor decided to leave.

“I will say that I am very dismayed by the actions of this council,” he said. “This is not the meeting that a team of us worked on planning, so I am not going to facilitate it.”

When he returned, Kamau said he was “distressed and disappointed that the blackest city in one of the blackest states in the United States of America is into Black History Month with this all-Black council tearing each other down.”

“I can’t continue to sit here and let you make it seem like we’re the villains and you’re the victim,” Councilwoman Helen Willis said. “Those cameras are in the back of the room, not because of us,” she said. We are not tearing you down, you took your Black behind over to Africa for 20 days and didn’t tell anybody.”

The audit also revealed multiple flight upgrades when the corporate credit card policy only permits economy flight purchases. The ethics board is scheduled to recommend Kamau to issue repayment or resign.

“To be quite frank…if he could take luxury trips on his own dime, he would have,” Whichard said. “So, the city is never going to see that money again.”