Strange Covid-19 expenses incurred by Gauteng Department of Education are investigated by the Education Committee on request of the FF Plus

18 November 2020

The FF Plus has made sure that the Education Committee of the Gauteng Legislature investigates the suspicious Covid-19 related expenses that the Gauteng Department of Education incurred in September for the staggering amount of R96 million. After the media (Daily Maverick) reported on some of the expenses last week, the FF Plus brought the suspicious nature of many of the tenders to the Committee's attention.

And as a result, the Committee ordered the Department to answer its questions about the matter yesterday.

The amount of R96 million was paid out to 28 different service providers, many of which seem to have shelf company names and were, thus, only recently established. Many of the names of the companies that were awarded tenders contain the words "Trading" or "Consulting", which is indicative of the standard names often associated with shelf companies. Many of the companies' names also seem strange when compared to the service that they are expected to render, i.e. decontaminating buildings.

During the meeting, the Department head indicated that all the tenders were awarded to companies on the tender database of the Department and according to them, nothing suspicious occurred. He did, however, undertake to disclose all the details of all the tenders to the Committee.

The FF Plus also requested that the Department must disclose how every tender and contract came into being, when each of the service provider companies were founded, who their directors are and what services each of these companies rendered as well as when these services were rendered. This information has not been published, but may help to determine whether any maladministration or tender corruption occurred.

The Department head undertook to gather all the relevant information and submit it to the Committee.

The FF Plus will keep the pressure on to ensure that this matter is thoroughly investigated.

Issued by Anton Alberts, FF Plus national chairperson and MPL: Gauteng, 18 November 2020