The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) says it has applied for a Presidential Proclamation following the Gauteng Health Department’s irregular expenditure due to alleged corruption and the irregular appointment of service providers.
The department’s official Babita Deokaran flagged irregular tenders to the tune of more than R 850-million at Tembisa Hospital, east of Johannesburg, before she was gunned down outside her home in August 2021.
“We have recommended that we want to have a proclamation in relation to investigation at the Tembisa hospital. The province has already confirmed that they are with us on that, because we needed that confirmation to take it to the president as we speak. Proclamation has been put together so that it can now go to Department of Justice and then ultimately to the president so that we can never have full powers because when we are under circumvented or never full powers, even though after we found the things we cannot now go to the courts and get the money back, but we can do that when this proclamation” said SIU spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago.
Gauteng government’s R500 000 and under procurement policy called into question
They say currently any purchases above R500 000 require a public tender process and anything under this amount simply requires the CEO to sign off.
Slain whistleblower Deokaran red flagged R850 million in suspicious payments at the Tembisa hospital on Gauteng’s East Rand.
She is said to have identified over 1 230 purchase orders all under R500 000.
The Defend Our Democracy campaign held a picket outside the Gauteng Legislature in Johannesburg to demonstrate against corruption in the provincial healthcare sector.
Ahmed Kathrada Foundation’s Neshaan Balton says, “What has certainly been exposed is a tactic to use corrupt practices just below the R500 000 mark because that means you do not have to go out on tenders. It shows a huge abuse of the quotation system and I suspect this is now being used across many of the health sectors and many of the areas of government. So, this is an area that needs to be investigated.”
VIDEO | Civil Society groups protest against government corruption in Gauteng:
