Vaccine corruption scare following SIU revelation on PPE tenders

With more than R13.3 billion of the R30.7 billion spent by the state in seven months under investigation, the Special
Investigating Unit (SIU) has conceded the scale of personal protective equipment (PPE) fraud was the biggest yet in the unit’s existence.

“This scale of PPE maladministration and corruption really tops some of the investigations we have done before. From our trend analysis, it has really been a situation unprecedented,” SIU head Andy Mothibi said on Friday.

According to the graft-busting unit’s PPE fraud progress report, a total of 2,556 PPE contracts to the value of over R13.3 billion awarded to 1,774 service providers were under investigation.

Head of legal and investigations at Corruption Watch, Karam Singh, said PPE corruption was a disaster.

READ MORE: Rigged processes, political pressure led to awarding of dodgy PPE tenders, SIU finds

He said corruption had become pervasive because the current system was weak and could easily be easily taken advantage of.

He said government was the biggest procurer of goods and services and it was clear with the advent of Covid-19 that there was going to be big spending by government.

“What we have seen with PPE is that the market was organised. People were organised to have companies that would bid for these deals and manoeuvre unscrupulous ways and the worry we have is that we are going to see the same thing now with the vaccine roll-out,” Singh said.

He said there were numerous companies registered in the space of a month that would be bidding for government vaccine roll-out contracts.

The Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (Denosa) said in a statement the infection of more than 43,000
healthcare workers and the death of more than 436 of them could be closely linked to the supply of substandard
quality of products which the investigation has so far unearthed.

“[It] vindicates many healthcare workers who complained to us of poor quality of PPE at the time when healthcare workers needed the best protection in the face of the deadliest virus that has killed over two million people globally,” Denosa president Simon Hlungwani said.

ALSO READ: Companies ordered to pay back money linked to Gauteng PPE tender

“Healthcare workers are owed an apology, explanation and a recourse from both government and implicated companies over this malaise, because many are still feeling the hard knock-on effects of infection, while family members of those who died have lost breadwinners and parents permanently.”

The majority of the companies, the SIU has indicated, had no intention of delivering services and were established for looting as demonstrated by the haste with which the money was moved.

More than 20 companies could not demonstrate that the funds were lawfully obtained.

With 258 PPE contracts to the value of R1.2-billion under SIU scrutiny, the basic education department has emerged as one of the biggest spenders.

Mothibi said it appeared that officials took the declaration of a national state of disaster as a license to loot and break the law, merely rubber-stamping unlawful decisions from senior officials.

– siphom@citizen.co.za

READ NEXT: Gauteng Premier David Makhura cleared of PPE tender corruption

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