All contracts in the department of health will be subjected to rigorous scrutiny, including legal advice, to help prevent another Digital Vibes scandal.
These are some of the measures that were announced by department of health acting director-general Dr Nicholas Crisp and minister Dr Joe Phaahla to ensure that systems are tightened.
A damning report by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) on the Digital Vibes scandal revealed shocking non-adherence to supply chain management regulations and the flaunting of the Public Finance Management Act in the awarding of the contract and payments made to the company.
Among irregularities flagged were incidents where officials approved payments to Digital Vibes despite the expenditure of “excessive amounts” that were not in line with National Treasury-approved amounts. The SIU also showed how a senior official made intentional material misrepresentations to the Treasury when he requested approval to deviate from normal procurement procedures.
Digital Vibes was run by previous health minister Dr Zweli Mkhize’s associate Tahera Mather and his former personal assistant Naadhira Mitha, who, according to the SIU, used it as a front to score a multimillion-rand contract from his department, which raked in R150m.
Crisp said the findings of the SIU probe were being used to tighten supply chain systems and processes to prevent future irregularities.
“We now also have heightened vigilance,” Crisp said.
He said people in the department got “willingly and unwillingly” drawn into the flaunting of processes as identified in the SIU report.
The report showed that Digital Vibes was appointed for a National Health Insurance (NHI) media campaign, for a service that was not budgeted for by the department.
Crisp said in instances were matters require legal input the department would rather delay processes by seeking legal advice.
The report also revealed that Phaahla’s predecessor Mkhize had approved budgets amounting to about R132m in respect of the NHI and Covid-19 media campaigns, which Digital Vibes benefited from, with R46m for the NHI media campaign approved 52 days after the service level agreement between the department and Digital Vibes had already been signed.
It further stated that another budget of R85m for the NHI media campaign was approved by Mkhize more than six months after the service level agreement between the department and Digital Vibes had been signed.
Phaahla announced on Thursday that six officials in the department would be served with suspension letters as they would be placed on precautionary suspension for their alleged roles in the saga.
“The letters have been prepared and all six of them will have been served with the suspension letters by the end of business on Friday,” he said.
Phaahla said three of the employees implicated in the SIU report had already left the department and were working for other state entities, but steps were being taken to ensure that those departments were informed of the disciplinary steps being taken against them.
The minister said the Digital Vibes saga had dented the image of the department. “We assure the public that we will thoroughly act and will ensure that nothing is swept under the carpet,” Phaahla said.
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