The eThekwini Municipality was charged over 500% more than was benchmarked by the National Treasury for some items purchased during the Covid-19 lockdown, a report by the supply-chain management has revealed.
Now, opposition parties in the eThekwini Municipality are calling for the City’s internal audit probe into some of the contracts to be speeded up and for the Special Investigative Unit, mandated by President Cyril Ramaphosa, to probe corruption around Covid-19 tenders.
The report, which was made public a virtual executive committee meeting on Tuesday showed that the City spent R426 937 685 on Covid-19 related expenses over a four-month period.
Of this, R75.5m was spent on personal protective equipment, sanitisers and hygiene services were second for expenditure, while R67.4 million was spent on food hampers.
Provision for the homeless, which included marquees, showers, toilets, blankets, security, health units, temporary staff, nurses and thermo scanners, cost ratepayers R66.8m.
Many of the items were purchased using Section 36 supply management protocols which allow officials to bypass normal tender processes.
For example, a line item on the report shows that the City paid 543% more for 13 reusable bodysuits that was benchmarked by the Treasury at R300.11 each, but was purchased for R1 930 each by the City.
Another item in the report showed that shortly after the country went into lockdown in March, the municipality bought more than 8 000 units of hand sanitisers for between R78 and 79.99 – instead of the National Treasury benchmarked price of at R49.21. This amounts to 61% more.
Among the large contracts awarded were the City paying R2.5 million for 100 000 surgical face masks, with a tie-on, for R25. Treasury had benchmarked the product at R10.22.
In fact, contractors scored the most from the surgical mask tenders.
The report shows that in April, the City bought over 1.4 million surgical masks for between R2.5m and R3.7 million per contract for 100 000 masks that it paid up to 145% more than it should have.
A cleaning services company was given a contract to supply 100 000 masks at R25 each that was benchmarked at R10.22. This was 145% more than what Treasury had benchmarked.
For 2 000 non-sterile latex gloves, the eThekwini Municipality charged 214% more than the Treasury benchmark, which had the cost per item at R46.44, which the City paid R146 each for.
Thabani Mthethwa, of the DA, said they wait with interest on the City’s internal auditors’ response with regard to the expenditure related to the Covid-19 pandemic.
He also called on the SIU to probe some of the contracts.
“In March and April, the government, through various ministers, said that those who inflated prices during the pandemic must be brought to book and made to account.
“It is therefore very concerning that in this very report you have benchmarked items by National Treasury that should have been R300 or so, but the municipality paid R1 900 per item, R1 600 above the benchmark by our very own National Treasury.
’’Now one has to ask themselves why would the municipality go against the direct instruction of national government and procure at a reasonable price?”
Mthethwa asked why the municipality kept on going back to companies that overcharged it.
Mdu Nkosi,, of the IFP said the city’s expenditure around Covid-19 was a big concern to them.
“It is such a concern that I have written to the public protector asking her office to investigate the maladministration of Covid-19 funds in the eThekwini Municipality.
“I have a gut feeling that something is wrong in eThekwini. The citizens of eThekwinii must know if their money was used properly,” he said.
Of concern to him was the expenditure around the homeless during the lockdown.
“How much were we paying for food, how many people were fed and where did that food come from?
’’We must remember that people living in eThekwini only received food parcels and vouchers for one month. If the area of focus was homeless, these people must be profiled.
’’My belief is that not all of them were homeless,” he said.
Daily News