Cost of Gauteng white elephant hospital balloons to R733 million
26 January 2022
The total cost of the refurbished Ashanti hospital in the far west rand has ballooned to R733 million, including the building cost of 588.5 million and medical equipment bought for R144.4 million.
This is revealed in the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) report on government’s Covid-19 spending that was released yesterday.
According to the SIU, six of the contractors were irregularly appointed by the Gauteng Department of Infrastructure Development without a contract amount, no bill of quantities and no scope of work.
Work on the hospital started in April 2020 before the costing and pricing was approved. Although the refurbishment budget was supposed to be R50 million, it mysteriously grew to more than R500 million.