Cape Town - Finance minister Pravin Gordhan has asked for disciplinary steps to be taken against Correctional Services commissioner Zach Modise and has restricted a member company of the ANC’s Progressive Business Forum from doing business with the state over a R378-million prisons IT system tender.
Chief procurement officer Kenneth Brown gave an instruction for the tender to be cancelled over irregularities in the process, telling Parliament’s standing committee on appropriations last month it estimated the work could have been done for R50m, but Modise declined.
Now Gordhan has written to Justice and Correctional Services minister Michael Masutha advising him to make sure the contract is cancelled, the company awarded the contract, Integriton Integrated Solutions and its associates are restricted from doing business with the government, and Modise and the members of the bid committee should be investigated.
He said in a letter dated April 11 the Treasury had reviewed the bidding process for the tender – for an inmate management system – and found Integriton was irregularly appointed in that it had made a false declaration in its bid documents, lacked the capacity and ability to execute the contract, there was a fronting relationship between the main contractor and sub-contractor, and the sub-contracting limit of 25 percent had been exceeded.
“In view of the above, the Accounting Officer and members of the Bid Committee failed to comply with certain provisions of the Public Finance Management Act, Treasury Regulations, Instructions notes and preferential procurement regulations, 2011,” Gordhan wrote.
Integriton is part of the SA Security Solutions and Technologies group of companies, which also includes SA Fence and Gate, a member of the Progressive Business Forum and an ANC donor.
Gordhan announced in his February budget the office of the chief procurement officer would conduct a review of all government tenders, including those in parastatals, with a value of more than R10m.
Political Bureau