Suspended health boss back
TENDER: CLEARED INTERNALLY
Hearing finds no irregular links to massive Digital Vibes scandal.
The director-general (DG) of the department of health, Dr Sandile Buthelezi, has been reinstated to his job after he had been suspended for being implicated in the Digital Vibes saga.
The department yesterday announced that Buthelezi, who returned to work on Monday, was cleared of all charges levelled against him at an internal disciplinary hearing.
Buthelezi was placed on precautionary suspension in September after being implicated, along with other officials, in the awarding of the controversial R150 million communications contract to Digital Vibes – a company owned by former health minister Zweli Mkhize’s close associates.
The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) carried out the probe into the irregular tender earlier this year after shocking claims that Mkhize and his family personally benefitted from the contract, which was for the department’s National Health Insurance (NHI) communication work and Covid media campaigns.
“The ministry of health would like to wish Dr Buthelezi all the best in fulfilling his duties,” the spokesperson for the department, Foster Mohale, said in a statement.
In its 114-page report, the SIU found that after assuming his duties as the DG of the department in 2020, Buthelezi instructed that all NHI and Covid media campaign matters should be centralised in his office.
“Thereafter, he contravened the provisions of Section 81(1)(b) of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) by allowing payments to Digital Vibes amounting to approximately R60 million, in circumstances where such payments constituted irregular expenditure, as envisaged in the PFMA, and parts thereof also constituted fruitless and wasteful expenditure in terms of the PFMA.
“Dr Buthelezi should have conducted a comprehensive due diligence exercise before allowing such any payments,” the SIU said.
The SIU also found that Mkhize, associates and family members personally benefitted from the tender. This resulted in the department incurring irregular expenditure amounting to R150 million and fruitless and wasteful expenditure ranging between R72 million and R80 million.