Siyabonga Mkhwanazi
Justice and Correctional Services Minister Michael Masutha faces tough questions in Parliament over the R378 million tender Correctional Services gave to companies with links to the ruling party.
The Treasury is probing the tender after it was inflated from R50m to R378m and the fact that procedures were not followed.
Masutha, who is presenting his department’s budget vote today, will still face questions from members of the opposition. He and his top officials in the Department of Correctional Services were grilled by the standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) on the tender a few weeks ago.
Scopa members questioned the inflation of the tender from R50m to R378m.
They also demanded answers from the department’s officials on procedures followed as a Treasury report questioned the processes of awarding the tender.
However, the department said it would need time to respond to the report.
Yesterday, Scopa chairperson Themba Godi confirmed that they decided to put discussions on the tender on hold until the auditor-general has finalised his work on auditing the department’s books.
“We took a decision to put it in abeyance because the department was raising a lot of procedural issues on how the report was done,” said Godi.
The Presidency early last month ordered the Special Investigating Unit to probe the awarding of the electronic monitoring system tender by Correctional Services.
President Jacob Zuma asked the SIU to investigate irregularities in the awarding of the tender and payments made. Zuma also wants the SIU to look at the extension of the tender and improper conduct of officials in the Department of Correctional Services, as well as those from the companies concerned.
The Presidency did not state the value of the tender being investigated by the SIU.
News24 later reported that the company given the tender had links to the ANC. It said some of the officials of the company were ANC members. However, when the department appeared before Scopa, it came under fire from MPs, who questioned irregularities in the contract.
They also demanded answers on the inflation of costs from R50m to R378m in a few months, adding the department had even paid when it didn’t have the money.
At the time the department awarded the R50m tender, it had R18m in its budget for the project. MPs were angry that the department would commit itself to a tender when it knew it had no budget for it.
The Treasury insisted in its report to Scopa the tender was awarded irregularly and also questioned the cost escalation.