PPE corruption report: Gauteng the worst offender

The Special Investigating Unit’s (SIU) final report into the personal protection equipment (PPE) corruption scandal has revealed that Gauteng is far the worst offender.

With more than R6 billion worth of contracts under investigation, the SIU’s reports show irregularities were found in 93% of the contracts.

The SIU investigated 1,906 contracts in the following departments:

• Department of Education
• Department of Health
• City of Johannesburg
• Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality
• Johannesburg Property Company
• Johannesburg Social Housing Company
• South African Police Service

So far the SIU has recovered R24.6 million from dodgy contractors and R139 million worth of contracts have been set aside.

Gauteng, the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal are the three provinces with the highest value of contracts that were being investigated:

• Gauteng – R6.038 billion (1,906 cases)
• Eastern Cape – R2.982 billion (799 cases)
• KwaZulu-Natal – R1.108 billion (537 cases)
• Mpumalanga – R730 million (888 cases)
• Limpopo – R473 million (46 cases)
• Free State – R244 million (105 cases)
• Western Cape – R233 million (54 cases)
• North West – R193 million (505 cases)
• Northern Cape – R179 million (188 cases)

President Cyril Ramaphosa on Tuesday finally publicly released the SIU’s final report into the government’s procurement of goods, works and services associated with the Covid-19 pandemic.

Ramaphosa received the report in December last year but delayed its public release while his office studied the findings.
 
The PPE corruption scandal report published on Tuesday does not include details of ongoing investigations.
 
The SIU expects these matters, which are covered by the proclamation, to be completed between March and April 2022, before the submission of a supplementary report to Ramaphosa by the end of June 2022.
 
The president authorised the SIU to investigate dodgy tenders and deals related to government spending on PPE in 2020, two months into the national lockdown.
 
He gave the commitment that if the SIU found evidence of criminal activity, it was obliged to refer such evidence to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).

At least 63 of Gauteng’s contracts have been referred to NPA.
 
The proclamation also empowered the SIU to institute civil proceedings for the recovery of any damages or losses incurred by the state.

To date, the SIU has instituted civil litigation proceedings to the value of over R1.4 billion in Gauteng alone.

See below for a national outlook.

The SIU has investigated 5,467 contracts awarded to 3,066 service providers across the country with a total value of R14.3 billion.
 
Investigations have been finalised with respect to 4,549 contracts, of which 2,803 contracts were found to be irregular. This amounts to 62% of the finalised investigations.
 
“The submission of the final report is an important step in our fight against corruption in the public and private sectors, and against maladministration,” said Ramaphosa.
 
“This investigation targeted individuals and institutions who believed they could exploit a moment of national vulnerability to enrich themselves and those with whom they colluded to abuse public resources.”
 
Forty-five matters – constituting a combined value of R2.1 billion – have been enrolled with the Special Tribunal regarding corruption, fraud and illicit money flows.
 
The SIU has made 224 referrals for disciplinary action against officials in government departments or entities.

A total of 386 referrals to the NPA as well as three referrals for executive action and 330 referrals for administrative action, which includes blacklisting.
 
The rand value of actual cash and assets to be recovered on the basis of the investigation is R551.5 million, while cash and assets recovered to date total R34.2 million.
 
The value of potential loss prevented by the investigation is R114.2 million, while contracts set aside amount to R170.4 million.

The Presidency says it “trusts the NPA will exercise its discretion diligently and expeditiously”.

“It is unacceptable that so many contracts associated with saving lives and protecting livelihoods were irregular, unlawful or fraudulent.
 
“This investigation demonstrates our determination to root out corruption and to deal with perpetrators,” the president said.

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