Provincial health spokesperson Neil Shikwambana has confirmed that COVID-19 personal protective equipment (PPE) tenders worth over R900 million were not advertised by the department, but the names were supplied to the department of health by the provincial treasury.
He says the company names were hand-picked from the data base of the provincial treasury.
There are allegations that among the 216 companies awarded the tenders, some belong to government officials. the friends and relatives of senior politicians, while others did not qualify. One of the companies is alleged to be based in KwaZulu-Natal and is said to have been given a R180 million tender.
Tito Mboweni calls for law enforcement to probe the awarding of PPE tenders:
Speaking on SABCs Thobela FM current affairs show, Shikwambana says the names of the companies allegedly involved are published on the provincial department’s website and the Treasury and the office of the Auditor General are investigating if there was wrong doing.
“We used that data base from Treasury and we picked those names from there. Treasury will not hide anything because the process was done publicly. We complied with the call made by the minister to publish the names of the companies which were given the tender.”
Shikwambana also promised that the department will publish the names of the companies which were not given the tender. He could not say when they will publish the names.
The Conty Lebepe Foundation, which wrote to President Cyril Ramaphosa in July calling for an investigation into allegations of irregularities in the PPE tender in Limpopo, has called on the provincial department of health to also publish the names of companies which did not get the tender.
Director of the Conty Lebepe Foundation, Conty Lebepe, questioned why the department did not use the names of the companies in the department’s data base.
“The issue of handpicking the companies in the name of emergency is really uncalled for. It’s irrelevant because there have been some companies that have been supplying the PPEs in the department of Health and the same companies are there on the database so why didn’t they take them because those companies have got the experience? They have been doing the business with the department. You can’t just go and hand-pick companies owned by friends and relatives in the name of emergency. No, that is wrong.”
The matter is being investigated by Treasury and the office of the Auditor General. Attempts to get a comment from the SIU were unsuccessful.
NEHAWU calls for special leave for implicated officials
Workers union NEHAWU has called for Limpopo government officials and senior politicians who have been implicated in tender irregularities allegations to be put on special leave.
NEHAWU provincial secretary, Jacob Adams, says the SIU must investigate the allegations and those implicated must be placed on special leave.
“We are saying that the SIU must do their work and we are calling on the Premier of the province to act swiftly on this matter; particularly on what the Gauteng provincial government has done, to put some of these officials and some of the political leaders on special leave so that thorough investigations can be done. Investigations cannot be done while people are still in office. They must be on special leave so that proper investigations can be done.”
Political Analyst Levy Ndou discusses corruption during the COVID-19 pandemic:
