Senior FS treasury official “demoted” for being fingered in PPE scandal

A senior manager from the Free State Finance Department has been fingered in the irregular awarding of tenders for personal protective equipment (PPE) in the province and has been punished with somewhat of an interesting demotion. Step Up SA News has it on good authority that the implicated official has not been placed on precautionary suspension as is normal, but rather  “demoted” and moved to the Free State Health Department pending a plethora of criminal and internal investigations. The official in question was flagged by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) in their February 2021 report for his alleged role in the awarding of lucrative tenders to individuals allegedly linked to former Free State Premier, and suspended ANC Secretary General, Ace Magashule. Sources confirm he began working at the provincial health department in March 2021 – 1 month after the report was released.

For context’s sake:  the procurement of PPE in the Free State was centralised to the provincial Finance Department after the country found itself in a state of emergency due to the Coronavirus outbreak. Prospective suppliers were urged to get themselves registered on the department’s Covid-19 database. This is how this department became embroiled in the scandal.

In late 2020 several media houses reported on allegations that allies of Magashule in the Free State, including one of his sons and scored PPE tenders irregularly. These allies included the owner of an unregistered Bloemfontein  car wash and chisa nyama; and the organiser of the largest music and cultural festivals in the province. The SIU has found in its latest report on all cases that there is no evidence the associates received the lucrative multi-million rand tenders owing to their close relationship to Magashule. The value of the tenders go up to over R 4 million in one instance. Now two of the suppliers, including the chesa nyama were however found to have not been registered with the South African Revenue Service (Sars) as Valued Added Tax (Vat) vendors and it is this that could be their downfall. The SIU says it has reported that matter to Sars.
The Free State Treasury is mum on any of the aforementioned developments despite requests for comment from Step Up SA News. It remains unknown why the implicated official has been moved to another department pending the additional investigations.

This is a developing story