SANDILE MOTHA
ALTHOUGH a forensic report has revealed grand scale corruption within KwaZulu-Natal department of Social Development, no single politician will be held to account.
The findings of the report were made public by Premier Sihle Zikalala this week. It revealed a trail of corruption of at least R30 million in suspicious payments allegedly made to hand-picked service providers.
The investigation was conducted by the provincial treasury following an uproar and public complaints relating to fraudulent awarding of tenders for Covid-19 related emergencies.
“The investigation revealed that there was irregular expenditure in the procurement process. As such implicated officials will face disciplinary action for failure to follow proper procurement processes. With regard to the MEC, there is nothing that indicates wrongdoing on her part,” said Zikalala.
He said the report also showed that there was no planning or needs analysis conducted when the department procured about 48 000 blankets at inflated price of R 22 million.
The blankets were meant to be distributed to homeless shelters for homeless people mainly in Durban and surrounding areas.
The report also revealed that some service providers were paid without doing any work and some delivering items which were not listed in the tender specification. In one instance, a service provider quoted R 600 per blanket, the same item sold for R 250 or less in retail price. In fact, out of the 48 000 blankets procured, only 10% were delivered.
Xolani Dube, KwaZulu-Natal based political analyst told Inside Politics that the report was a window dressing exercise.
“This is just a political gimmick. Corruption in this province is institutionalised and this will only stop once we see politicians being handcuffed and thrown behind bars. Innocent officials often take the fall because politicians hide under the excuse that they do not have signing powers,” said Dube.
Zikalala was not forthcoming whether the implicated parties would be criminally charged, instead said they will be disciplined internally.
Early this week, the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) said it was worried that public servants who are found to have been involved in corruption or wrongdoing are often suspended and resurface in another department without facing any consequences.
(Compiled by Inside Metros staff)