Parliamentarians expressed shock on Wednesday that none of the 51 companies implicated by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) in its investigation relating to Covid-19 procurement have been blacklisted from doing business with the state.
This came to light when the Presidency briefed the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) on investigation reports submitted by the SIU.
The SIU was authorised in 2020 to investigate procurement for personal protective equipment (PPE) and other issues related to the Covid-19 pandemic response.
Senior official Jonathan Timm told Scopa that 51 companies were recommended for restriction from doing business with the state.
“As at October 31, none of the companies appear on that list of the National Treasury’s database of restricted suppliers. Between the issuing of recommendations by the SIU and recording of restrictions on the register maintained by the National Treasury, there has been no successful restriction,” Timm said.
He also said state-owned enterprises Eskom and Transnet have restricted suppliers implicated in SIU investigations on their own supplier databases.
“They have given us confirmation of that. In the National Treasury’s database, we don’t have a correlation.”
However, Timm said the National Treasury did not just act on the recommendations to blacklist companies other than doing due diligence when a request was made.
“At the accounting officer level, it must determine whether a supplier should be restricted and then make recommendations to the Treasury,” he said.
DA MP Patrick George Atkinson said it was a shock that there is no company fingered for tender irregularities in the database of restricted suppliers.
ActionSA MP Alan Beesley said: “It’s a farce. I think that is the best way to put it.
“There are only 199 companies listed on it and there are 235 municipalities and so many state-owned enterprises. There is something seriously wrong with the system.”
“Who is ultimately responsible? We can't have 199 companies, not one of them is there,” he added.
EFF MP Mazwikayise Blose asked whether directors of companies were blacklisted when the companies were restricted from doing business with the state.
Blose said a director of a company found to be on the wrong side of the law could just open another company and do the same things that led to blacklisting of the other.
MK Party’s Kwenzokuhle Madlala said they were dealing with institutionalised corruption in the country.
“If they are not in the register of the Treasury, it means they still have eligibility and can't be picked in other spheres,” Madlala said.
Timm earlier said the Presidency was monitoring the outcomes of 297 recommendations for disciplinary actions related to the PPE procurement.
A total of 190 of the cases were finalised with 98 guilty findings and 18 officials dismissed, including two municipal managers, three CFOs, eight senior managers and two middle managers.
He also said the SIU referred 304 recommendations for criminal prosecutions to the National Prosecuting Authority.
“These were investigated and prosecuted through the Fusion Centre. A total of 70 guilty convictions have been handed down since June 2021 as result of the investigations into the Covid-19-related matters.”
Cape Times