Corruption allegations surrounding Covid-19 contracts have been a hot topic, especially since the president has promised that he will now be ‘clamping down’ on those who cross the line. In particular, SA is dealing with corruption cases surrounding the purchasing and supply of PPE, which puts frontline workers at risk when taking care of patients. In his weekly BizNews webinar, broadcaster Tim Modise interviewed Advocate Andy Mothibi of the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) to find out exactly how many cases they’ve received thus far, and what’s being done. – Claire Badenhorst
TM: Now, how many cases have been reported to you regarding Covid-19 so far? Do you have a sense of the extent of corruption around Covid-19 contracts?
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AM: Yes. Just as an example, in Gauteng alone in the Department of Health, at last count the contracts that we had received to look at and assess were 167. That was the latest information I received. At the last reporting, which was last week sometime, the number was sitting at 102 having gone up from 91, initially. So, the reason why it keeps going up is the investigators keep receiving information from these departments in terms of the contacts that continue to get work or that got work, which are on their database. So, that’s why the number keeps changing.
In the Eastern Cape, we’ve got that contract that has been publicised around the scooters, and the other one which related to the door-to-door awareness campaign which was also publicised. There’s also other contracts that we’re looking at in the province and we’ve received various allegations. But those that have been publicised, I mean, number one – the Department of Social Development in the province having bought blankets and those blankets were allegedly overpriced. So, we’re also looking at that. So, there’s quite a number of contracts that we’re looking at.
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We are making progress
As the president announced, we’ve got a centre which enables all law enforcement agencies to collaborate and that centre is based at FIC. At last count that centre was seized with about 36 cases at the time. The number may have changed to date, but those cases are distributed amongst SIU; DPCI, which is the Hawks; and FIC is also assisting with the information that’s relevant to the investigations. The NPA is also assisting with what’s called ‘prosecutor guided’ investigations. So, I would like to just re-emphasise that we would like to make sure that these matters are dealt with speedily, and effectively, so that we produce the results that are legally sound and we produce the impact that is expected by the public.
Now, on the Covid-19 investigations, we do have allegations from almost all of the provinces. We’ve got teams on the ground as we speak now. Those teams are collecting documentation. They are looking and assessing all of those contracts, and all of those companies that are involved. So, as we speak now, I’m satisfied that we are making progress. You know that when the president announced this, he said SIU will report six weekly to him. So, we are making progress such that we should be able to announce tangible results.
Read also: Covid-19 just makes the corruption pot bigger, activist says
We will show no mercy
Remember the outcomes that I mentioned when I started. When we make that report, those outcomes would be: are there any particular litigation processes that we have started that will go to the Special Tribunal for recoveries? Are there any criminal cases that are underway based on the crimes that have been committed during this Covid-19 – irregularities and corruption? Are there officials who are being approached with charges of misconduct?
And I must also say that it’s not only the public sector or public officials. There are private companies that are involved. We will also not spare them. If we need to act against them, either refer criminal matters against them or act civilly against them to recover from them, we will do so. Of course, in the process of investigation, there’s requirements for some specialists that SIU does not ordinarily employ. For example, if you talk about the quality of PPEs, we would need a specialist who would assess that. Of course, there are also government entities that we can use to assess the quality. We are also engaging those specialists. So, in the process we’ve got other resources that we appoint so that we can augment in those necessary areas of the investigation process.
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