Provincial governments are said to be losing millions daily on dubious Covid-19 tender procurement as reports from both KZN and the Eastern Cape indicate.

Disguising the identities of beneficiaries of PPE tenders and the paying of exorbitant prices to ensure massive kickbacks are some of the tactics used by KZN provincial government officials to raid the public purse during Covid-19 procurements.

The Witness reports the officials’ tactics were evident in Covid-19 procurement documents released by Premier Sihle Zikalala.

Containing details of all the provincial government’s Covid-19 procurement deals, the documents have now become the focus of the KZN legislature’s Scopa. Provincial Scopa chairperson, Maggie Govender, said a preliminary investigation had revealed a number of irregularities in Covid-19 procurements by three departments: Health, Education and Social Development.

Govender said some of the trends picked up by Scopa in the provincial government’s Covid-19 deals showed that only a few individuals had benefited from the contracts.

By July the three departments had spent close to R2bn on Covid-19, with the Department of Health accounting for close to R1.5bn of the total expenditure.

However, both internal and external investigations had since confirmed that a substantial amount of the Covid-19 provincial government spending was irregular.

Scopa, Govender said, has since given the three provincial departments until the end of the month to provide it with reports on how they had dealt with matters raised by the committee on Covid-19 procurement irregularities.

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In the Eastern Cape, Covid-19 funds are plundered to the tune of millions a day by a supply chain management (SCM) system so corrupt it could be said there is a parallel system operating in OR Tambo District Municipality.

A Daily Dispatch report says this is according to accounting consultants Ayanda Peyane and Co, also known as Apac, hired by the municipality to probe allegations of financial mismanagement and irregularities.

The findings were presented to a special council meeting yesterday by Apac project manager Msekeli Nqabeni. He warned that the district municipality would continue to ‘bleed millions’ unless it fixed its supply chain system which flouted policy and ran a parallel system.

‘The entire SCM process was subverted,’ he said.

The distortion was so bad that any disciplinary hearings could result in the entire SCM workforce being fired, he added.

‘Every passing day, the municipality is losing millions. It is an emergency that has to be addressed.’

According to the report, the Hawks and SIU were investigating tender corruption valued at R160m.

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