The Gauteng government is all hands on deck for a scandal amidst the COVID 19 pandemic. Government officials are at the centre of the news for alleged corruption in the procurement process.
Here is the summary, according to Business Tech.
- R4.5 million was paid to companies that did not supply any goods.
- R5 million was paid to companies to deliver PPE even though the department had no contracts with them.
- R12 million worth of goods were delivered before the issue of purchase orders.
- R82 million worth of goods were ordered from companies that were not registered with the Treasury’s central supplier database.
- R239 million worth of goods and services were ordered from companies that were not tax-compliant and whose bank accounts had not been verified.
You might be scratching your head wondering how some of this could happen and it’s simpler than you may think. We must stress, at this stage all of the allegations are unsubstantiated, but we’d like to use it as an example.
Here’s a simple way of how it could work
- When there is money up for grabs, in the form of tenders of personal protection equipment in this case, someone close to the decision making process gets greedy.
- They get someone close to them, a friend or family member, to get a proposal together and apply for the tender. The proposal usually has a huge markup.
- The person close to the decision making process nudges the decision makers to chose their friend or family member’s proposal
- The friend or family member then makes millions of bucks and shares some of the profits with the original person
Since the outbreak of COVID 19 in South Africa, tales of alleged corruption are rife. Some figures are showing that the total cases could be as high as 650, totalling more than R5billion. The question is, how could this be possible in a time when the country needs money and PPE the most. Was there a lack of information or blind oversight.
So where can corporate intelligence help
Corporate intelligence is the processing of multiple sources of formal and informal information to present a case for or against a company or person. In a nutshell, corporate intelligence can be the Dick Tracy for your business. If that example is a bit old for you, imagine you have your own private detective digging up everything you want to know about the company you could be about to award a multi-million rand deal to. That is corporate intelligence.
Why take the chance of doing business with an unknown and suffer financial or reputation damage? Chat to us around your corporate intelligence needs and we can tailor a solution for you.
Sources https://businesstech.co.za/news/business/424068/gauteng-ppe-tender-corruption-uncovered/