Johannesburg - The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) has welcomed the Special Tribunal’s judgment to set aside the decision of the Gauteng Education Department to illegally award R431 million worth of contracts to service providers to decontaminate, disinfect and sanitise schools in response to Covid-19.
The Tribunal made the ruling after hearing that following the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020 and the country being placed under lockdown, Gauteng Education Department illegally procured personal protective equipment from 49 service providers in breach of National Treasury regulations.
The court heard that in preparation for the opening of schools, the GDE adopted specific cleaning protocols. Under these protocols, if a Covid-19 case was reported at a school, the school would be shut down for decontamination, deep cleaning and sanitisation.
The GDE would pay the procured service provider.
“In order to meet the anticipated high demand for these services, Mr Baloyi, GDE’s Chief Director: Physical Resource Planning and Property Management, requested permission from Edward Mosuwe, the GDE Head of Department (HOD), to approve a deviation from the normal procurement processes for the appointment of service providers. Mosuwe approved the deviation.
Subsequently, Victor Manngo, Director: Auxiliary Services, was tasked with assisting Baloyi with the project to decontaminate, deep clean and sanitise GDE schools that have experienced a Covid-19 case.
Mr Baloyi advised Mr Manngo to source service providers that were procured for a previous cleaning contract as the GDE Supply Chain Management (SCM) division was not available to assist with the procurement of service providers; proceed to appoint the service providers with appointment letters to be sent at a later stage; and offer service providers between R250 000 to R270 000 for primary schools, R250 000 to R290 000 for secondary schools and R250 000 to R300 000 for district offices.”
SIU spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago said the ruling in their favour was based on evidence provided by the SIU. The Special Tribunal found that the Gauteng education department did not follow proper procurement processes in awarding contracts to service providers worth more than R431 million.
Kganyago said the SIU seeks to recover all profits made by service providers from the irregular contracts.
“To ensure the profits are calculated and recovered in full, the Special Tribunal ordered that the service providers must submit a statement and debatement of account in respect of their appointment, performance and payment to the SIU to determine the profits derived. If the accounting and the sum of profit determined is disputed by either the SIU or the service providers, the parties shall approach the Special Tribunal for an appropriate order on supplemented papers as necessary.
“In the event that there is no dispute on the accounting and the sum of profits, the Special Tribunal ordered that such profit shall be paid to the SIU within 15 days of such agreement, together with interest.
“More than R60 million has been preserved pending final determination of profits derived from irregular contracts,” Kganyago said.
He said the SIU approached the Special Tribunal to review and set aside the contracts following an intensive investigation, which revealed that Gauteng Education paid over R431 million to service providers pursuant to a process that was hap-hazard, unfair and littered with procurement irregularities.
“The investigation revealed that the procurement process was not cost-effective, as service providers were not paid per square metre of the area cleaned. Rather, a senior official in the Gauteng Education appears to have arbitrarily decided to offer a fee of R250 000 to R270 000 for the decontamination of primary schools; R250 000 to R290 000 for secondary schools; and R250 000 to R300 000 for district offices.
“The fees bear no relation to the work done by service providers or the cost of material used. Some of the names of service providers appointed were received via WhatsApp from officials in the Gauteng Education. The service providers were appointed without first checking whether they were accredited or appeared on the Central Supplier Database, the SIU investigation has revealed,” he said.
Kganyago said the outcome of their review application was a continuation of the implementation of the SIU investigations outcomes and consequence management to recover financial losses suffered by State institutions.
“There are 45 matters enrolled in the Special Tribunal which are still awaiting adjudication to the combined value of R2.1 billion and will result in further recoveries for the State,” he said.
Political Bureau