SIU say they were just trying to save money with supposed ‘irregular’ PPE purchases

The unit recently empowered to handle all Covid-19-related corruption allegations against government is now dealing with its own personal protective equipment (PPE) scandal, after a senior official reportedly shared allegations of corruption and mismanagement with the Sunday Times this weekend.

In an explosive letter to Justice Minister Ronald Lamola, the unit’s head of strategy, Ziphozenkosi Mguli, accused its CFO, Andre Gernandt, of influencing the appointment of a specific company for the contract without following the stipulations of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA).

But unit boss Andy Mothibi’s spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago dismissed the allegations before sending a detailed memo explaining why certain deviations were made from the normal process in order to obtain cheaper masks per unit. The contract was awarded to a company called SA Doctors APP (Pty) (Ltd) to the value of R58 500. The losing bids ranged between R80 340 and R105 000.

According to the memo, the SIU had trouble making a cost-effective decision while following an instruction note by National Treasury made in May which meant it could only appoint companies registered in the department of small business.

Around the time of the instruction note by Treasury, the memo said, the department handling the procurement of the masks conducted market research in and found that the price given by National Treasury at the time was “not realistic” with regards to the current market prices, in that the prices were at least 80% – 100% higher, and therefore, it was not practically possible to comply with Instruction note 5 and be able to procure the necessary masks.

The department contacted service providers and noted the discrepancies in the prices which resulted in the SIU broadening the pool of suppliers, rather than using a narrowed list of suppliers, which is against the Constitution’s principle of having a competitive process. The list of suppliers from small business development was not disregarded, the memo added, as other suppliers on the process included those from the list.

“However, the additional requirement that NT brought in with Instruction note 5, to be registered with the department of small business, effectively narrowed down the number of suppliers that any organ of state could procure from, and affect the competitiveness of the SCM procurement process materially,” it said.

Kganyago said the allegations were an attempt to derail the work of the SIU with regards to Covid-19-related corruption. He said Mguli had already had a discussion with Mothibi on these accusations and he had advised that a formal grievance be filed in order for her accusations to be investigated.

He dismissed the accusations made in Mguli’s letter stemming from external attempts to distract from the new directive of the organisation to investigate all Covid-19-related contracts with government.

“They are trying to divert us. All I can say in answering you is that we are not going to allow things like this to divert us. We will be resolute in carrying out the work before us. This issue is very serious, it is an allegation that is out there which has not been tested at all and we have been calling for this person, because it not the only allegation, to put a formal dispute or a grievance so that these things can be tested because we believe in governance,” said Kganyago.

According to the Sunday Times, Mguli’s letter also made several allegations that Mothibi made irregular appointments of executives, that he was guilty of maladministration, abuse of power and the irregular awarding of contracts. He alleged that his mismanagement led to poorly conceived investigations and that he conspired to retrench an executive.

Asked why the unit expected the matter to be dealt with internally when it clearly included allegations which could not be investigated by the unit, Kganyago said there were protocols in place to have the unit investigated independently should anyone raise complaints of this nature. He said the matter had yet to be put through a formal complaint process.

“I can safely tell you without fear of contradiction that we have followed the processes. The allegation that the following of processes has not been done is completely incorrect and we call upon anyone who wants to take that on to come forward, because it is clear that there is an attempt to derail us from what we are tasked to do. We are not going to allow that to happen. We have done what we are supposed to do, because for us integrity is a cornerstone. We can open up those processes to anybody because the processes are audited by the auditor general.”

The Sunday Times claims to have received complaints from other SIU employees who complained of Mothibi’s relationship with Nehawu, the union he claims also made similar allegations against him, and complained of alleged abuses of power and corruption by Mothibi.

– Simnikiweh@citizen.co.za

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