The national and provincial departments of health and basic education paid up to five times more than they should have for personal protective equipment to fight the spread of the coronavirus, auditor-general Kimi Makwetu has said.
In April, President Cyril Ramaphosa asked Makwetu and his office to audit the procurement processes followed by government departments and companies when buying goods, services and infrastructure to contain the pandemic. “The National Treasury determined the specifications and market-related prices for PPE. Through instruction notes, the Treasury made it a requirement for public-sector institutions to purchase the specified PPE at these prices or less, and provided for approval processes if there was no choice but to procure at a higher price,” Makwetu said in a statement.
“Teams are still busy auditing the procurement processes, but are identifying matters such as suppliers not having valid tax clearance certificates; quotation and competitive bidding processes not being correctly applied; inadequate or inaccurate specifications and evaluation criteria and the incorrect application thereof; conflicts of interest; and the awarding of a contract in the health sector to a supplier with no previous history of supplying or delivering PPE.
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