Parliament’s finance watchdog Scopa has written to the Minister of Health Zweli Mkhize and Minister of Finance Tito Mboweni calling for an open tender process for vaccine storage and distribution. According to an Eyewitness News report, the committee said corruption in PPE procurement last year could not be allowed again.
This week, President Cyril Ramaphosa personally received the first consignment of a million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
The committee said the vaccine rollout should not be a repeat of last year’s personal protective equipment (PPE) procurement scandals, which were plagued by more than 600 dodgy contracts amounting to more than R5bn. Scopa chairperson Mkhuleko Hlengwa said they had asked the two Ministers to ensure there was a transparent public adjudication of the tender processes.
The committee has also called on the executive to ensure all normal tender processes are adhered to. “As you recall, there’s been announcements to that effect and we also need to put in place preventative measures that will ensure that this does not fall into the realm of corruption as well,” Hlengwa said.
[link url="https://ewn.co.za/2021/02/02/scopa-writes-to-mboweni-mkhize-calling-for-open-vaccine-tender-process"]Full Eyewitness News report (Open access)[/link]