Sita to release reports after internal probe

THE State Information Technology Agency (Sita) will release two forensic reports at the end of the month that will lift the lid on the extent of corruption in the entity.

This followed its meeting with the standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) in Parliament yesterday where the committee asked about deviations and expansions of contracts worth tens of millions of rand.

In one transaction, Sita deviated on a tender worth R1.9 billion, and in another it sought deviation from the Treasury for a tender for R416m. The Treasury had refused to deviate on some of the tenders.

Sita also admitted to Scopa it was cleaning up its house after it found corruption with some of its staff involved and departments coming up with “cooked” tenders requiring approval.

The agency said it had seized 80 laptops from its supply chain management division.

When the forensic investigations by two firms began, half the staff at the supply chain management division either resigned or were fired.

Sita’s Rudzani Rasikhanya said: “Within Sita, there has been lack of consequence management for a long time. We have started to do that. We need to punish the people for the wrong things they have done.”

Sita chairperson Zukile Nomvete said they had started to deal with people in procurement. He said there had been poor contractual management at the agency.

He accused some of the national departments of cooking up tenders. He said there was conflicts of interest between some officials and suppliers.

The forensic reports from the two firms would identify the exact details of what happened with some of the tenders, Nomvete said.

Scopa chairperson Themba Godi said he did not want a slap on the wrist for people involved in corruption at Sita.

He said he had been concerned by the use of deviations and expansions by departments and state-owned entities.

This was used as a form of corruption because no tenders were put out in the public for competitive bidding.

“We want to dissuade departments and entities to avoid abuse,” said Godi, adding that in one major state-owned entity, a tender was extended 13 times.