Blunders in Bloem shame a varsity
Senior staff at the Central University of Technology (CUT) in the Free State have been embarrassed by controversies that include a multimillion-rand tender blunder, the suspensions of the vice-chancellor and a deputy vice-chancellor this week, two key suspensions, and a lavish office refurbishment.
A forensic investigation blamed officials in the university’s supply chain unit for awarding a contract for security that could have potentially cost it an extra R52.5m over five years. The unit did not notice that two tender documents with vastly different specifications for the same contract were issued.
Specifications on one document indicated that 51 guards were needed around the clock for the university’s Bloemfontein campus while another said 80 — the correct number — were needed.
Seventeen bidders received incorrect specifications and 15 the correct ones.
The university’s council approved appointing Defensor Electronics Security at R1.2m a month for three years, with the option to renew for a further two years. The company invoiced the university for R2.1m a month just weeks after winning the contract.
Defensor’s initial R1.2m price was based on 46 guards around the clock.
Defensor changed the contract price to R2.1m a month, according to the audit report, after the university’s deputy director of protection services, Amos Radebe, told the company that 51 guards per shift were required for the Bloemfontein campus. The forensic report said it was unclear on what basis Radebe acted in adjusting the number of guards and thus the pricing.
Defensor submitted a handwritten note in the service level agreement indicating its newprice after the document containing the old price had already been signed by the vice-chancellor, Henk de Jager.
Radebe, the only member of the tender committee to be fired over the procurement failure, has challenged his dismissal at the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation & Arbitration.
The report said the financial implication of Defensor’s contract over five years was based on its initial price of R1,234,851 a month. This would have been R74m, compared with R126.6m. It amounted to a difference of R52.5m
The company is contracted at R1.6m a month for 78 guards around the clock.
Phatshoane Henney Attorneys in Bloemfontein, who provided legal advice to the university on the contract, said the “administrative error” of issuing different tender documents to different bidders had been “a regrettable failure by supply chain staff”.
De Jager said in a meeting with tender committee members last year that “we messed up the tender and irregularities”. This week he declined to comment.
In an unrelated development, De Jager was suspended on Monday for allegedly failing to act on a sexual harassment complaint by one staff member against another. The deputy vice-chancellor for resources and operations, Gary Paul, was also suspended.
On Tuesday the university council’s chair, Boysie Phehlukwayo, resigned over De Jager’s suspension. A day later, Phehlukwayo’s deputy, Garth van Gensen, resigned.
There has also been some concern over the exorbitant spending on renovations to the office occupied by Paul.
A staff member said that a filing room in Paul’s office had been converted into a kitchenette with a bar fridge and a cappuccino machine. New couches were also bought. The table in the conference room had been fitted with a granite top.
Paul has been suspended for what is believed to be an unrelated matter.
Commenting on his resignation, Phehlukwayo said the suspension of De Jager “was the last straw”.
Mohlopi Mapulane, chair of parliament’s higher education committee, said the members viewed the irregularities in the awarding of university’s security contract “very seriously”.
“The committee will follow up to get explanations regarding this tender. The committee will also request an explanation on renovations to the deputy vicechancellor’s office.”
Mapulane said the committee “will follow up the management and governance situation, which seems to be deteriorating”.
The university’s council said in a statement that De Jager and Paul were put on “precautionary suspension … until a grievance-related inquiry has been completed in line with university policies and procedure”.