Mpumalanga’s premier says the province’s education department head, Lucy Moyane, and seven other officials involved in the procurement of 22 laptops and a printer for R2m should face disciplinary hearings.
The department must also recover the money and send the name of the service provider to National Treasury to be added to the database of blacklisted companies.
These recommendations were announced by premier Mandla Ndlovu at a briefing on Monday, after an investigation into the procurement of the laptops.
Ndlovu said: “The procurement process of the 22 laptops and a printer was flawed … in that the procurement does not comply with both Section 217of the constitution read with the provisions of Section 38 and 45 of the PFMA [Public Finance Management Act], as the process cannot be said to have been fair, equitable, transparent, competitive and cost-effective.
“The supplier did not comply with the terms of the purchase order and delivered laptops of a lesser quality than what was approved and paid for.”
Ndlovu said the department’s officials irregularly specified the brand instead of the functionality they required, resulting in only specific suppliers responding to the request for quotations.
“The departmental officials irregularly invited bids from a particular brand of suppliers and within the limited locality of Mbombela, despite the fact that it was required to expand the scope provincially,” said Ndlovu.
“The initial specifications were varied without a proper process and by an official not duly authorised. The conditions specified by the Bid Adjudication Committee to negotiate the price prior to the order being issued were not adhered to. Then the Department procured laptops of similar specifications, which could have been procured for a lesser amount had due diligence been applied.”
He said certain officials acted in a “dishonest manner and lied”.
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