THE Gauteng Health department awarded personal protective equipment (PPE) tenders worth millions to service providers with no known history or capacity to supply the PPEs.
This is the latest damning finding of the office of the Auditor-General following the release of the Special Report on Covid-19 audit tabled before the standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) in the Gauteng provincial legislature.
The findings corroborate the latest court action by the Special Investigative Unit (SIU) to recover the funds which were allegedly awarded irregularly.
The A-G’s report found that there were no specifications indicated on awards and submissions. It also found that the officials tasked to award the tenders made higher payments for goods than allowed by National Treasury.
The report said that the officials failed to submit evidence to support deviations which was the result of emergency procurement.
“Contracts awarded to service providers with no known history of supplying personal protective equipment (PPE). Reasons for deviations not recorded and approved as per the delegation of authority. No declaration of interest by the winning bidders,” the report said,
The report further stated that all four healthcare facilities, Leratong Hospital; Helen Joseph Hospital, Jubilee Hospital and George Mukhari Academic Hospital, had indicated that they had not received any guidance from the department on how to determine their re-order levels, and/or to calculate their re-order quantities for PPE stock from the bulk storage facilities.
“Storage areas for PPE were not sufficient to store all the Covid-19 PPEs. All four healthcare facilities had space challenges when storing Covid-19 PPEs, as a result, the facilities did not have sufficient space to carry the Covid-19 PPE. At three of the four healthcare facilities, Leratong Hospital; Jubilee Hospital and Helen Joseph Hospital, it was indicated that there were instances when the bulk storage facilities could not fulfil the requests for PPE stock in a complete manner.
“Stock outs or low stock levels were identified, This was due to the required stock items not being available at the bulk storage facilities,” the report found.
Political Bureau