DA reveals deep corruption at SITA

29 November 2017

Astonishing replies to the DA’s cross examination of government’s State Information Technology Agency (SITA) in Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) today exposed that no valid process was followed when Forensic Data Analysts (FDA) were appointed to maintain ROFIN, NIKON and Spheron products bought by the South African Police Service (SAPS).

This process is required by the Constitution, the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) and National Treasury.

SITA is responsible for maintenance and the upkeep of products belonging to the SAPS.

The DA will therefore ensure that the current forensic investigation at SITA continues until a full investigation into all SITA business with FDA, Unisys and EOH is completed. Our call extends further than forensic equipment and extends to the provision of IT infrastructure and architecture at SAPS, which has cost R5 billion to date.

We will also continue to push that the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) to continue to investigate SAPS members involved in this fraudulent behaviour, and that they regularly update SCOPA as to the progress they have made.

The DA wrote to the SAPS, before they appeared in SCOPA, to ensure that they provided the following information today:

- All procurement details for 3 573 forensic equipment items;
- A verification of the amount of members using this forensic equipment;
- A list of case numbers where forensic equipment was used; and
- The full 108 SAPS records relating to what forensic equipment is issued to individual members of the SAPS.

Despite our timely request, none of these documents were provided and it is highly suspicious that SAPS ignored our demands.

We even presented photographic evidence of FDA and Unisys directors entertaining Supply Chain Management (SCM) SAPS members at Old Trafford Football Stadium in the United Kingdom in October 2011 where FDA owner, Keith Keating, was present. This is watertight proof that SAPS’ relationship with FDA is entirely improper, inappropriate and possibly illegal.

The DA also strongly questions the need for expensive maintenance contracts to maintain the 3 573 items of forensic equipment at a cost of R9.7 million per month. It is a completely superfluous contract because most of the items are maintenance free, the contract has two years to run and is still worth R234 million.

We are therefore deeply concerned that while millions has been splurged on maintaining thousands of forensic equipment devices, there has been no substantial improvement in prosecution rates.

The DA is confident that these investigations will reveal yet more evidence of possible corruption and we will not rest until the questionable SITA contract is cancelled and the money paid to FDA is recovered.

Issued by Tim Brauteseth, DA Shadow Deputy Minister of SCOPA, 29 November 2017