The Mercury

KZN Education Department addresses issue of PPE irregulari­ties

- THAMI MAGUBANE thami.magubane@inl.co.za

TWO senior officials at director level in the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education have been sanctioned for irregulari­ties in the procuremen­t of personal protective equipment (PPE).

One of the officials has been fired and another placed on suspension for three months without pay, owing to supply chain irregulari­ties.

Department representa­tives appeared before the national portfolio committee on co-operative governance and traditiona­l affairs (Cogta) on Wednesday. They said several other employees were being subjected to disciplina­ry action for offences linked to procuremen­t.

It announced in 2020 that it had suspended two officials at senior management level on allegation­s of fixing PPE tenders. KZN government department representa­tives had appeared before the committee to brief MPs on action taken after the office of the auditor-general highlighte­d concerns about how the province went about procuring its PPE.

Nkosinathi Ngcobo, head of department, briefed the committee on the action taken so far. He revealed that the department had discipline­d officials, instituted civil recoveries and strengthen­ed its supply chain processes.

The two officials tied to the Supply Chain Unit feature prominentl­y in the report back as they were linked to a string of findings that speaks of their derelictio­n of duty.

This was noted by the chairperso­n of the committee Fikile Xasa, who said “in the report it was the same officials committing the offences”.

The irregulari­ties that had been discovered by the auditor-general include that there had been non-compliance with National Treasury disaster management instructio­n notes.

The auditor-general had found that the department had procured some PPE items at higher prices than those recommende­d in the National Treasury instructio­n note, which states that institutio­ns may use suppliers as long as prices were equal or lower than set.

He said investigat­ions were instituted as soon as there were allegation­s of overpricin­g and the department, with the Special Investigat­ive Unit (SIU), recovered the funds from the suppliers.

“The auditor-general had also found that the department was invoiced and paid for R61 000’s worth of PPE more than the supplier delivered and there was no evidence that the supplier delivered the shortfall to the department later.”

“The auditor-general also found that the department had awarded contracts worth over R500 000 to two companies that were not tax compliant.

“Two officials at the level of director were suspended, one has since been dismissed and another placed on suspension without pay,” said Ngcobo.

Ngcobo said further disciplina­ry processes were under way.

Among the issues raised by the auditor-general was the finding that some of the materials supplied to the province were not of the required quality.

Ngcobo said going forward, companies supplying the department with goods would be required to provide samples that would be evaluated.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from South Africa