Home South African This is who benefited from Covid-19 tenders

This is who benefited from Covid-19 tenders

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The Department of Education spent more than R38m on the procurement of face masks for provinces, with Spot on Trading securing the lion’s share at R19.5m.

File picture: Siphiwe Sibeko Reuters

AS ALARM continues over large scale looting of Covid-19 relief funds within government through tender corruption and price hiking for personal protective equipment (PPE), the national executive has been forced to allow the public to also comb the tenders awarded.

National Treasury this week published the list of all companies that secured tenders for the supply of PPE, among other items and the amounts spent by each department.

The Basic Education Department spent almost R1 billion on Covid-19-related procurement since the declaration of the State of Disaster by President Cyril Ramaphosa earlier this year.

Of the total R819 633 565 departmental expenditure, around R600 million was spent on water tanks for schools, while R108m was used to rent mobile toilets.

More than R38m was spent by the department on the procurement of face masks for provinces, with Spot on Trading securing the lion’s share at R19.5m.

The Home Affairs Department had spent R20 243 898 on PPE, with Matema Trading securing the biggest single contract for the department at R1 036 033 for the supply of hand sanitisers at R113 per 500ml bottle.

The Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development spent R43 132 282, with 53% of it spent on PPE for farmers, with Black Dot securing a R11.5m tender for the supply of 400 000 surgical face masks.

According to Public Enterprises Director-General Kgathatso Tlhakudi, the department had spent R281 930 on PPEs which was 28% of its R1m budget for PPE procurement.

The Communications and Digital Technology Department has spent R1 246 163 with more than R800 000 spent on contracts to decontaminate its offices.

The Forestry, Fisheries and Environment Department has spent R11m of its R21 655 875 total Covid-19 expenditure on video conferencing, with R and N AV Innovations securing the lucrative contract.

KwaZulu-Natal has spent R1 999 465 704 on Covid-19 related expenditure, with R925 271 000 of it spent by municipalities.

The Western Cape government spent R1 460 564 585 while the Eastern Cape spent R1.2bn.

The Gauteng provincial health department, which has been at the heart of Covid-19 corruption allegations, spent more than R2bn.

While the department listed both the companies that secured tenders and the prices, its database did not have details on the service which were rendered by the companies, as listed by other departments and this was the case with many provincial departments across the board.

Earlier this month, Ramaphosa appointed a ministerial task team in a bid to tackle Covid-19 tender corruption and inflation of prices for PPE, and the lists of the companies are set to be combed by the task team.

The Mpumalanga treasury department spent more than R350 000 of its total R555 813 Covid-19 departmental expenditure on hand and surface sanitisers, with one 25 litre costing R4 220 and R4 590.

Hand and surface sanitisers with 70% alcohol range between R500 and R1500 at retail price.

The North West government has placed its consolidated Covid-19 expenditure at R116m, with the health and education departments accounting for R65m and R32m respectively.

The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) president Joseph Montisetse said politicians who made money out of a coronavirus pandemic were committing an act of genocide.

“Our members who come from poor communities that work in mining, energy, and construction are amongst the most hit by this pandemic due to lack of resources. The stolen monies have contributed indirectly to the death of those who such funds needed to help,” Montisetse said.

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