Gillingham, Mti on ‘Team Bosasa’, not correctional services – judge

Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo yesterday described Bosasa Operations as “a player who made sure – through Patrick Gillingham and Linda Mti – that the referee was theirs”.

These were the remarks made by Zondo in summing up findings of the 2004 Special Investigative Unit (SIU) report on massive graft, which involved the two most senior officials in the department of correctional services.

The findings were put to Bosasa’s former chief operating officer, Angelo Agrizzi, by the commission’s evidence leader, Paul Pretorius, for response.

Under Mti as commissioner and Gillingham as chief operating officer, the department became a conduit for tenders solely awarded to Bosasa (now African Global Operations) to the exclusion of other potential bidders.

Under cross-examination by Pretorius, Agrizzi corroborated the SIU findings on a flagrant disregard for government supply chain policies under Mti’s leadership.

The SIU fingered Bosasa, Mti and Gillingham for having been involved in an improper and corrupt relationship, which ensured that Bosasa bagged all the department’s tenders.

Having conducted a search and seizure operation at Gillingham’s home in 2004, SIU officials found several documents incriminating him in corruption, which included specifications of multimillion-rand tenders awarded to Bosasa.

In its report, the SIU also found that tender processes were subverted, warning that the irregular practice would open the department to civil lawsuits by unsuccessful bidders due to Bosasa having enjoyed an unfair advantage.

The department’s tenders in catering, satellite centres, access control, fencing and TV saw Bosasa, through Gillingham, taking charge of drafting tender specifications and shared with Bosasa ahead of the bid publication.

Among the tenders Bosasa scored, were the following:

• R239 427 694 a year catering contract awarded in 2004, which ran for three years;
• R14 000 000 a month contract for the erection of seven satellite correctional centres which had to be included in the catering tender authorised on May 17, 2005;
• Two-year R236 997 385.31 access control contract awarded to Sondolo IT (Pty) Ltd – a subsidiary of Bosasa – on April 11, 2005;
• R486 937 910 fencing tender awarded to Phezulu Fencing (Pty) Ltd – a Bosasa BEE front company – on November 29, 2005; and
• R224 364 480 awarded to Sondolo IT on March 3, 2006 for designing a system where a TV would be placed in every cell.

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.