Durban - THE KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education has claimed that it was “duped” by Pacina Retail about its ability to handle the R2 billion National School Nutrition Programme (NSNP) contract to deliver food to schools.
The programme was on the brink of collapse recently as Pacina Retail struggled to deliver food, leaving thousands of KZN schoolchildren hungry.
However, Pacina has disputed claims that it failed to meet the tender’s expectations, stating that it had delivered thousands of tons of food to schools. It also disputed allegations that it had delivered rotten food.
It was awarded the tender as the sole supplier of the programme to deliver food to 5 400 schools and feed more than 2 million pupils.
This award was a marked departure from the system used before where individual suppliers serviced different schools. The department has said it has reverted back to the old system.
The department yesterday unpacked the challenges experienced when it was grilled by two portfolio committees in different virtual meetings that took place simultaneously. While the provincial committee was demanding answers, the national portfolio committee on Basic Education was taking the department to task over the same issue.
In its meeting with the KZN committee, the department said the following:
- Pacina Retail has withdrawn from the tender.
- Pacina has not gone to court to reclaim the contract.
- The company faced massive logistic problems to the extent that it had promised that there would be 59 delivery points across the province, but it ended delivering to far fewer points and some were not the same as the ones in the tender documents.
- The department had to set up more delivery points as it looked to contain the crisis.
The department’s comments are in contrast to what Pacina Retail said in a statement at the weekend in which it said the contract was still in force and it intended to honour it.
Education MEC Mbali Frazer apologised for the fiasco.
“As a department we are ashamed of ourselves, as parents we are hurt and we hope nothing of this nature ever happens again,” said Frazer, adding that they hoped the investigation would unearth what had gone wrong.
Education HOD Nkosinathi Ngcobo told the committee that the department had realised as the crisis unfolded that the company did not have the capacity it had claimed. He said the company had claimed that it had the backing of a popular chain store which it would be using as its main distribution centre and would also be using its multiple centres across the province.
He said while the company had initially been told to start delivering at the end of March, this was delayed because of a complaint lodged by one of the losing companies.
“By April 14 when they started delivering they did not deliver to all schools and some of the food was not in compliance with the agreement,” said Ngcobo.
Ngcobo said when it became clear that the company was struggling, he informed them that they had breached their contractual obligations and asked them to provide reasons why the contract should not be terminated.
“They did not respond, instead they wrote a letter to say that they are withdrawing from the contract on condition that they are paid for the work that had already been done to which we agreed.
“We have seen in the media that the company is now saying the contract is still in force, as far as we are concerned, the contract is non-existent,” he said.
Ngcobo said the department had engaged a senior legal counsel to handle the matter.
DA committee member Imran Keeka described the matter as one of the worst failures by the government in years.
The committee chairperson Sifiso Sonjica expressed concern that the company was demanding payment for work done.
“The figure they are dreaming about is R55 million. How are you going to pay them when there (are allegations) that they had delivered rotten cabbages, and you cannot stand here to tell us they did not,” said Sonjica.
Meanwhile, Premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube visited schools in Pinetown yesterday and sent out Members of Executive Council to 12 districts in the province to monitor the NSNP.
“Where there is a shortage of supplies we will ensure that, that gap is closed and goods are delivered. School operations will continue as normal,” she said.