SOUTH AFRICA
The South African Department of Public Works is going to Court in an attempt to recover more than ZAR1 billion (A$101 million) from companies that have blatantly overcharged for their goods and services.
Minister for Public Works, Thulas Nxesi (pictured) described the companies as “tenderpreneurs”, saying the overstated payments and “other irregular transactions” had cost the taxpayer ZAR1.2 billion (A$121 million).
He said Public Works would also seek to recoup another ZAR296 million (A$30 million) from landlords who leased non-existent parking lots or lots at exaggerated prices to other Government Departments.
The information was disclosed by Mr Nxesi and his acting Director-General, Imtiaz Fazel after investigations into irregularities in the Government’s multi-billion-rand building lease and property construction portfolio.
Mr Nxesi said a probe by the Department’s Special Investigating Unit (SIU) had also uncovered 16‚000 suspicious transactions in the day-to-day emergency maintenance program of the Department’s Property Management Trading Entity (PMTE) amounting to ZAR2 billion (A$202 million).
“The SIU investigations also found that close to 2‚500 employees of the Department and its entities, such as the PMTE, were implicated in cases of conflict of interest as they held directorships in private companies that traded with the Department,” Mr Nxesi said.
Mr Fazel said the 16‚000 dubious transactions occurred between March 2014 and March 2016 and included multiple payments for the same item to the same supplier, sometimes on the same day.
“We also find that we are repairing and maintaining the same thing continuously, like the same geyser; it would be repaired every other week — and we also find some suppliers who are engaged in perhaps 25 or 30 transactions with the Department in a single day,” Mr Fazel said.
Mr Nxesi said he was committed to rooting out “criminal syndicates” and “state-capture forces” that remained entrenched in his Department and he would not be deterred by their dirty tricks or smear campaigns.
Pretoria, 21 July 2018
