Cape Town — The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) has uncovered an alleged procurement of irregularities in the South African Department of Defence’s (DoD) R33.4 million Cuban medicine deal.
The SIU recommended that the DoD must cancel a contract that was signed with a Cuban medical company. The company in question was meant to provide soldiers with drugs to reduce the risk of Covid-19, ECR reported.
The tender, dating back to 2020 and valued at R217 million, was deemed irregular. The SIU said Parliament’s watchdog, Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA), said the DoD had already paid R33.4 million for unused medication.
The SIU’s Leonard Lekgetho said the drugs were returned to Cuba after the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority got 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,” Lekgetho said.
[WATCH] The SIU wants to cancel a Department of Defence contract valued at R217 million, that was irregularly entered into with a company from Cuba to buy medicine. It also wants to recover R33.4 million that has already been paid for medication that was never used. #Newzroom405 pic.twitter.com/sCZt9ujCDu
— Newzroom Afrika (@Newzroom405) January 28, 2025
According to The Citizen, Lekgetho said the procurement process was fundamentally flawed.
“The department did not procure the Interferon from Cuba using a competitive bidding process,” he stated, saying the drugs were not approved or registered by the South African Health and Product Regulatory Authority to be imported and used in the country” and “the department did not have funds in its budget allocated for the acquisition of the interferons”.
Lekgetho said the procurement’s outcome proved “fruitless and wasteful”, with most of the medicine being returned to Cuba following a court order.
“Only 15 of the total interferons imported from Cuba were used, and of the ones that were used, 10 were used on a patient at the one military hospital, and five of them were used by Saphra to do the testing,” Lekgetho confirmed.
Lekgetho reported that project funds were misappropriated.
The SIU made several recommendations to address these issues, including improving record management, enforcing consequence management, and developing frameworks to prohibit the use of private email accounts for official business.
The investigation continues as the SIU pursues civil litigation to recover funds and makes recommendations for criminal prosecution.
The unit has made 41 criminal referrals to the National Prosecuting Authority and 23 disciplinary referrals related to the Department of Defence investigation alone.
The committee agreed to engage further with the Minister of Defence and the National Treasury on systemic issues, with plans to invite the Finance Minister to address transversal issues affecting procurement across government departments.
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Compiled by Matthew Petersen
