The Special Tribunal has found the more than R113 million personal protective equipment (PPE) contract to be invalid and unlawful because due process was not followed.
This week, the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) announced that some of what they had found in their investigation was that the competitive bidding process was not followed.
Others were that the deviation from the process was not duly approved while the contracted prices were high.
The unit’s investigation further found that the service provider, LNG, was not registered on the government’s central supplier database for the supply of PPE when it was awarded the multimillion-rand contract.
In 2020, President Cyril Ramaphosa signed proclamation R23 of 2020, paving the way for the SIU to investigate allegations of corruption, maladministration, malpractice and payments made by state institutions relating to PPE procurement together with the conduct of state employees.
On Tuesday, the SIU welcomed the order by the tribunal in which the service provider, LNG, was also ordered to pay the costs.
SIU spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago said: “In a default judgement handed down on 7 February 2024, the Tribunal ordered that LNG be divested of all profits enjoyed under the invalid contract.
“LNG was ordered to submit audited statements within 30 days setting out its income and expenses in relation to the PPE items it delivered to the Gauteng Health Department pursuant to the impugned contract supported by expert reports. LNG was also ordered to pay the legal costs of the application and SIU.”
He added that the unit was ordered to file an expert report on the reasonableness of the income and expenses set out in LNG statements.
“On 24 April 2020, the then chief financial officer of Gauteng Health Department took a decision to procure 500 000 N95 masks at R55.50 each, 1 000 000 three-ply surgical masks at R18.00 each and 250 000 boxes of 100 sterile, powder-free surgical gloves at R270 per box,” he said.
Giving the order, Judge LT Modiba said the resulting contract between LNG and the department for “such supply and all purchase orders issued by the department to LNG pursuant thereto, was declared unlawful and invalid.
“LNG is divested of the profits it made on the supply to the department of all the PPEs under the impugned contract. LNG shall, within 30 days of the granting of this order deliver by filing on Caselines, audited statements setting out its income and expenses in relation to the PPEs it delivered to the department pursuant to the impugned contract supported by such expert reports as LNG may consider necessary,” Judge Modiba said.
The Star