Covid-19 corruption allegations a result of weak financial controls, says expert
The metro’s department of social and community development allegedly have not paid about R19-million to about 40 service providers, apparently because no tenders were approved.
Lack of clarity and planning on how the R500-billion Covid-19 alleviation fund was to be used opened the doors for widespread corruption in programmes to fight the pandemic.
This was the opinion of local political analyst Zamikhaya Maseti who said corruption allegations did not only concern metro councils but started from national government and cascaded all the way to local municipalities, including Tshwane metro.
The metro’s department of social and community development allegedly not paid about R19-million to about 40 service providers, apparently because no tenders were approved.
“When the R500-billion was announced by the president there was no clear financial plan for tender procurement processes,” Maseti said.
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“This is seen in the level of corruption that followed, from the PPE procurement to other social, education and health alleviation programmes – there was no clear plan, therefore, it was left open for many to feast on.
“Some companies were construction specialists and not even related to health issues but all of a sudden they supplied PPE – the criteria followed raises a lot of questions.”
Maseti said the phenomenon of tender processes dwindled from the national level down to municipalities. “The sad part is that we are borrowing money from International Monetary Fund at a premium level for Covid-19 and at some point, we will have to repay these loans and they will increase and put a burden on national fiscus.”
Maseti said although the Covid-19 procurement process was of an emergency nature the government spheres were still ordered by law to follow procedures which were flawed in some cases.
He alluded to auditor-general Kimi Makwetu’s report released in September, which found that the multi-billion rand Covid-19 relief package landed in an “environment with many control weaknesses”.
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“At the heart of the misuse of the finances lies the curtain of it was an ‘emergency’. This exposed the government to the risks of the misuse or abuse of public resources.”
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