SIU urges Defence Dept to cancel tender with Cuban company
The Special Investigating Unit has recommended that the
Department of Defence cancel a contract it signed with a Cuban company.
The R217 million tender, which dates to 2020, is deemed irregular.
The company in question was supposed to provide soldiers with drugs that would reduce their risk of contracting COVID-19.
On Tuesday, the SIU told Parliament's watchdog committee, SCOPA, that the department had already paid R33.4 million for unused medication.
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The Unit's Leonard Lekgetho said the drugs were returned to Cuba after the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority obtained a court order.
"All the procurements need to be signed by the accounting officer, but in this instance, the procurement was not signed by the accounting officer, and the inference was not approved or registered by the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority to be imported and used in the country when they bought it here.
"And drugs were never used by the Department of Defence as it was intended," said Lekgetho.
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