The Special Tribunal has declared as unlawful, unconstitutional and invalid the more than R600m contracts awarded by two Gauteng government departments for the lease and refurbishment of AngloGold Ashanti hospital during Covid-19.
The tribunal also reviewed and set aside the decisions made by the departments of health and infrastructure development, including lease agreements entered into with AngloGold Ashanti and Golden Core Trade and Invest, for the use of the hospital and residential premises.
“All lease agreement extensions or amendments were found to be unconstitutional and illegal,” Special Investigating Unit (SIU) spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago said on Thursday.
“The appointment of 11 professional service providers for the hospital renovation was deemed unlawful due to noncompliance with procurement requirements. Consequently, all contracts for this work have been set aside between the GDOH [Gauteng department of health], GDID [Gauteng department of infrastructure development] and the service providers,” he said.
The SIU investigation revealed that the procurement process was unlawful as it failed to adhere to the required transparent and competitive bidding procedures.
— Kaizer Kganyago
The order comes after an SIU probe which found that during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, the departments sought to expand healthcare capacity and entered into a lease agreement for Western Levels Deep Mine Hospital, formerly owned by AngloGold Ashanti. The mining company had donated the hospital which was then intended to provide additional beds for Covid-19 patients.
However, the procurement processes were riddled with irregularities. “The SIU investigation revealed that the procurement process was unlawful as it failed to adhere to the required transparent and competitive bidding procedures,” said Kganyago.
“This is a contravention of the Public Finance Management Act and National Treasury’s regulations, causing the Gauteng department of health to incur fruitless and wasteful [expenditure] for goods and services supplied. The investigation also found no feasibility study was conducted to evaluate the hospital's capacity to treat Covid-19 patients.”
He said the tribunal had deferred the matter of establishing a just and equitable order sought by the SIU to ascertain the amount to be paid to the state.
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