The recent suspension of several high-ranking health officials implicated in the Digital Vibes fraud scandal should not impact on the stability of SA’s vaccine rollout programme, parliament says.
03 October 2021 - 11:28
During the week the Special Investigating Unit was authorised by President Cyril Ramaphosa to make public its scathing report on the breach of procurement procedures and National Treasury’s note regarding the awarding of the Department of Health’s Covid-19 communications contract. This was to ensure that the health department’s credibility and the country’s vaccine rollout programme is not hampered by the suspension of director-general Sandile Buthelezi as well as other senior personnel.
Core findings made by the SIU were that there were irregularities in the awarding of the tender, procurement processes had been flouted, there were massive conflicts of interest and R150m was paid out in fruitless expenditure. All this while the country battled through the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.