THE Auditor-General’s second Special Report on the financial management of Covid-19 funds has painted a grim picture of how the provincial Department of Health has mismanaged the funds. File Picture: REUTERS/Mike Segar
Durban - THE Auditor-General’s second Special Report on the financial management of Covid-19 funds has painted a grim picture of how the provincial Department of Health has mismanaged the funds.
The report, tabled before the Standing Committee on Public Accounts recently, revealed that the department’s procurement processes were flawed.
It was found that departments, including KZN, did not always adhere to the instruction notes issued by the National Treasury as they continued to order PPE items at prices in excess of the maximum prices prescribed by Treasury.
KZN has in three instances entered into transactions for PPE at prices in excess of the determined price by Treasury.
The department lost R10.23 million in the transaction.
In other two instances, the winning bidders did not declare their interests on the completed SBD 4 forms. The total value of these awards was R13.11m.
“Therefore, adequate controls had not been implemented to verify that information and business interests declared by suppliers are accurate, complete and do not pose a conflict of interest between suppliers and departmental employees before a contract is awarded to the supplier.
“The KZN management advised that it does not have access to any system that permits the vetting of suppliers and matching them to any other company that does business with the department. The process to register suppliers on the tender-defaulters register requires an investigation to be conducted and the suppliers be given an opportunity to respond to any accusations levelled against them,” reads the report.
The AG’s report further revealed that on assessing the quotations and delivery notes in relation to goods delivered relating to 28 awards amounting to R92.90m, no mention was made of the actual specifications of the goods that are to be delivered, as required by various National Treasury instruction notes.
In another instance, a contract of R5.10m was awarded before the date of advertisement.
A R29.37m contract was awarded to nine suppliers who were tax non-compliant and this resulted in irregular expenditure, reads the report.
Opposition parties in the legislature said they were appalled by the audit findings.
“The most shocking finding is the complete mismanagement and alleged corruption in Covid-19 procurement. One contract worth R10.36m was overpaid by R14.28m with no evidence or documents to justify this overpayment. In the procurement of FFP2 (N95) masks, the contractor delivered FFP1 masks instead.
“These masks are of inferior quality as declared by the World Health Organization. Yet this contractor was still paid and the department made a loss of R4.5m. There have been promises of consequence management. Yet to date, no action has been taken against any accounting officer within the department,” said DA health spokesperson Dr Rishigen Viranna.
While the department paid for 500ml alcohol sanitiser bottles, one contractor only delivered 400ml bottles, costing the department R400 000. For the procurement of gloves, the department made a financial loss of R15.69m where the HOD approved a contract for a price that exceeded the Treasury maximum procurement price.
Ncamisile Nkwanyana from the IFP said the department was sinking even deeper.
“Are these officials competent? They have inflated the PPE prices and you can’t find a sound reason for that. This now needs the attention of the premier, because if there is no intervention, the affairs of this department will get even worse,” said Nkwanyana.
Daily News
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