Eastern Cape health MEC Sindiswa Gomba has instituted an internal investigation into how five companies were awarded personal protective equipment tenders worth more than R150m combined, allegedly including to a deregistered company.
While Gomba was unwilling to go into detail, the Dispatch understands a company with no valid tax clearance certificate also benefited from tenders, which Gomba said were worth between R32m and R38m.
The internal probe comes as the special investigating unit (SIU) and provincial treasury are investigating PPE tenders in the province amid allegations of corruption — which the World Health Organisation has described as murder.
None of the investigations have been completed yet.
Gomba confirmed she had ordered a 14-day probe by the department’s internal audit unit.
She said every PPE delivery claimed by the companies under investigation would be “tracked down and verified” after some “funny activities” were noted.
The probe, Gomba said, “should be able to pick up any anomalies”. The companies were awarded tenders to deliver PPE in East London, Port Elizabeth and Mthatha.
The focus of the internal probe, Gomba said, would be on whether the companies had delivered all the specified PPE.
She said the verification process comes after there had been “funny activities” noted around the delivery of PPE by the five companies, and their payment claims submitted, which she said sometimes came within hours or days of each other, and had “raised suspicions”.
Gomba said striking similarities from some of their payment invoices were noted.
“I will not get into much detail about these contracts for now as all will be revealed by the process we are undertaking,” she said. “It will be that process which will determine whether we are instituting fullblown investigations into these tenders or not. Any other action we take will come out of this verification process.
“We suspect that there is something funny here. These contracts were awarded for six months, but within days apart, claims for payment were being submitted, and we want to look at the process to verify these claims, invoices and payments.
“We will be checking all their claimed PPE deliveries to see if they had indeed been made. We will closely be tracking down from the first delivery to the last. We will be scrutinising all the documents signed for receiving these PPE,” Gomba said.
“Before we pay, you must have something that says you did deliver. All our stores in Port Elizabeth, East London and Mthatha must be able to give us such documentary proof and show us where each of the delivered PPE went.”
Asked whether provincial finance MEC Mlungisi Mvoko was aware of the health department’s internal probe, his spokesperson, Mzukisi Solani, was also cagey.
“First, provincial treasury is conducting a normal auditing exercise at all provincial departments for all Covid-19 related procurement, working with the auditor-general.
“On the other hand, we are working with law enforcement agencies, including the SIU, on a number of PPE procurement investigations.
“At this point, however, we cannot give a lot of information as the matter is still under the sub judice rule,” Solani said.
The SIU are probing 658 Covid-19 contracts worth more than R5bn in SA.
To put the SIU investigations into perspective, their overall value, at R5.08bn, is just over half the R10.38bn Covid-19 expenditure, according to the national treasury.
In the Eastern Cape, matters under investigation include those related to irregular procurement of goods and services, refurbishments and alterations to hospitals and clinics, and non-payment of temporary employer/employee relief (Ters) funds.
It was revealed at least 347 Covid-19 tenders worth R1.9bn are under scrutiny in the province. This includes the education department’s contract for tablet devices, now valued at R600m, where massive markups are suspected.
The provincial health department is under scrutiny for 239 Covid-19 tenders worth R622.4m, according to the SIU, including the ill-fated “scooter ambulances” that cost R10m for 100 motorcycles that allegedly did not meet minimum standards for patients’ transport.
Premier Oscar Mabuyane said in August that he had instructed the provincial treasury to investigate potential wrongdoing in the awarding of PPE tenders.