Parliament’s finance watchdog, the standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) expressed concern on Tuesday that President Cyril Ramaphosa had not yet released the report on the R150m Digital Vibes tender scandal.
The president is still considering the contents of the report and is said to have requested additional information from its compiler, the Special Investigating Unit (SIU).
“The SIU sent us correspondence that they handed their report to the presidency on June 30, and additional information was requested on July 2. They are not in a position to deal with the matter [in the committee] until it is finalised,” Scopa chair Mkhuleko Hlengwa, said on Tuesday.
Hlengwa emphasised the need to move with speed in dealing with all investigations regarding Covid-19 contracts. “These reports should not be allowed to gather dust,” he said.
The scandal implicated health minister Zweli Mkhize and other department officials. The irregular contract has been investigated by forensic firms employed by the department and probed by the SIU on the basis of a proclamation by Ramaphosa. The SIU, which submitted its report to Ramaphosa last week, also looked at overcharging in the contract.
The presidency was due to appear before Scopa on Tuesday to discuss the SIU report alongside law-enforcement agencies.
However, the SIU indicated to the committee that the presidency had requested additional information after it had submitted the final report on June 30. The details of the additional information were not clear, but according to a letter to Scopa, the information has since been submitted to the presidency.
MPs said on Tuesday that they were irked by the delay.
In June, Ramaphosa placed Mkhize on special leave, pending the outcome of the SIU investigation. Tourism minister Mmamoloko Kubayi has been serving as acting health minister since then.
Digital Vibes, headed up by Mkhize’s former personal assistant, Tahera Mather, and former secretary Naadhira Mitha, was awarded a contract by the health department in 2019 for communications work on National Health Insurance. The multimillion-rand contract was later extended to include work on the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.
Concerns about the contract were first flagged by the auditor-general in December, prompting the health department to commission an investigation by tax, assurance and advisory firm Ngubane & Co, which found the contract had been irregularly awarded in contravention of the public finance management act.
Ramaphosa has publicly committed to taking a decision on Mkhize’s fate when the SIU probe is done.
Hlengwa said the SIU could not be a player and a referee in its own investigative processes, and therefore the presidency had to act on the report and account to parliament. He also said acting minister in the presidency, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, said she would be attending a National Coronavirus Command Council meeting on Tuesday, and thus would be unable to engage with the committee in any case.
“They are saying they are not in a position in any case to speak about the ... reports because those are updates and not the final reports. Upon the finalisation of these reports, they will be able to engage with the committee,” Hlengwa said.
TimesLIVE quoted Ntshavheni as saying: “There is no final report that has been issued. Therefore, there is nothing I can report beyond the explanations provided in our correspondences to the Scopa.”
DA MP Alf Lees said the party condemned, in the “strongest possible terms, the refusal” by Ntshavheni to timeously report to Scopa.
“It is unacceptable that the presidency is evading accountability and perpetuating a chronic lack of transparency within the public sphere, especially on the spurious grounds that, among other excuses, they are too busy attending to National Coronavirus Command Council matters,” Lees said.
The Sunday Times has previously reported that Mkhize allegedly put pressure on senior officials in the health department to appoint Digital Vibes.
It later emerged that Digital Vibes paid for maintenance work on an Mkhize family property, channelled R16,000 towards a second-hand Toyota Land Cruiser bakkie for Mkhize’s son, Dedani, and paid R300,000 to the latter’s company.
The minister has repeatedly pleaded his innocence.
Mkhize, a former presidential hopeful, has been at the forefront of SA’s response to the coronavirus pandemic. The Digital Vibes scandal came as SA entered a third surge in infections and a national vaccination programme that has struggled to get off the ground.
The Mkhize scandal also came during a challenging period for Ramaphosa and his reform agenda, as he was battling to deal with suspended ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule, who defied party orders to vacate his office pending the conclusion of his corruption and fraud case.
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