The Democratic Alliance (DA) calls on the Treasury to make a firm commitment on when it will publish all the details of PPE contracts, including the names of contractor companies and the directors of those companies.
The Treasury’s presentation to Parliament’s Standing Committee on Finances today included some welcome commitments, like the decision to stop ’emergency’ procurement of PPEs.
The Treasury also agreed “in principle” to require all government entities to prove lists of PPE suppliers, and to publish these details on Treasury’s website, but did not commit to a specific date when this would be done. We call on Minister Mboweni to do so urgently.
This transparency is urgently needed, and would be a blow to “Covidpreneurs’ who had hijacked the emergency procurement process to enrich themselves during a national health emergency. The DA-governed Western Cape has already published these details.
In addition to the ban on public procurement of PPEs, Treasury also promised that accounting officers will be held accountable if there is any evidence of malfeasance in the procurement of PPEs. We will monitor this commitment.
In addition, it is vital that Treasury also names those government entities and departments where there was flagrant abuse of emergency procurement process to award tenders to companies that did not meet Treasury Instruction specifications.
Treasury’s willingness to be transparent is a critical first step in getting to the bottom of the disgraceful plunder of Covid-19 relief funds.
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