Strange Covid-19 expenses incurred by Gauteng Department of Education warrants investigation by SIU

9 November 2020

The FF Plus is concerned about Covid-19 related expenses that the Gauteng Department of Education incurred in September for the staggering amount of R96 million.

The amount was paid out to 28 different service providers, many of which seem to have shelf company names and were, thus, only recently established.

Given the extent of the Covid-19 fraud that has uncovered in Gauteng, there is good reason to suspect that all is not well with these contracts. The FF Plus will ask the Special Investigating Unit (SUI) to look into all these tenders as well.

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.

According to an investigation by Daily Maverick, there are three companies that were awarded the biggest tenders. One company reportedly received a tender of R13,9 million. Two other companies, with very similar names, were awarded tenders of R11,9 million and R4,6 million respectively.

The tenders were for cleaning schools to protect learners against Covid-19 after the schools had re-opened. However, schools already started re-opening as from the 8th of June so it makes no sense that these expenses were only incurred now.

The expenses of R96 million were incurred in September 2020. In August, comparable expenses amounted to only R13 million. This raises the question of why such enormous expenses were incurred so long after schools were allowed to re-open on the 8th of June.

In addition, it seems that it was not necessary to decontaminate schools that had been vacant for quite some time seeing as the virus cannot survive for very long if there are no people around. According to experts, the cleaning agents used could possibly pose an even bigger threat to the learners and the environment because it contains poisonous chemicals.

Thus, given the ANC in Gauteng's sordid history with Covid-19 tenders, the FF Plus will make very sure that the recent series of tenders awarded by the Gauteng Department of Education are thoroughly investigated as well.

Issued by Anton Alberts, FF Plus national chairperson and MPL: Gauteng, 9 November 2020