Dead Man Awarded R1M Covid-19 Tender
A dead man scored a tender worth almost R1m from the Eastern Cape health department.
Odwa KK Matshaya’s family told TimesLive they were stunned by the appearance of the dead man’s company on a list of more than 600 firms to have benefited from the department’s R1.2bn Covid-19 procurement expenditure in the past three months.
At the time of his death, Matshaya was the sole director of 2KS Construction and Projects.
According to the list, 2KS Construction and Projects received R992,105.
Other companies have come forward saying whilst they are on the list of beneficiaries they never received contracts from the health department.
The presence of such companies on the list raises questions about the procurement of PPE and other Covid-related services by the provincial government.
The Special Investigations Unit (SIU) told parliament’s standing committee on public accounts this week that it was investigating 352 recently awarded contracts in the Eastern Cape.
Matshaya’s family member who spoke to the publication on condition of anonymity confirmed the businessman’s death and the presence of 2KS Construction and Projects on the list.
“KK died two years ago and was the owner and sole director of this company. This came as a shock to us but the family does not want to talk more about this. This is not good at all — this is rot. Who did this and for what good reason?” the man asked.
A health department insider said the ratification of companies that did not receive tenders was the “tip of the iceberg”, as there were other “ghost companies” that had benefited.
“If you dig more, you will find there are ghost companies that got paid millions of rand. Get their account numbers — you will be shocked by who benefited. There are companies that were given appointment letters but no work was given to them, yet their names appear on the provincial list as companies that were awarded work,” said the official.
On the provincial list, 17 different companies were awarded work worth R1.56m. Another eight companies each received R1.576m.
The official said there was no way that so many companies would receive awards for the same monetary amount.
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