PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa has set the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) on the Department of Defence to probe two asset management contracts while the entity has announced significant progress in earlier investigations.
The SIU is expected to investigate the procurement of and contracting for inventory verification and continuous asset verification and the supply, delivery, installation and commissioning of an asset management system by the department.
The unit must establish whether payments made in these deals were done in a manner that was not fair, equitable, transparent, competitive or cost-effective.
It must also determine whether the contracts were awarded contrary to applicable legislation, manuals, guidelines, circulars, practice notes or instructions issued by the National Treasury or the relevant provincial treasury.
Additionally, the SIU will probe whether payments complied with manuals, policies, procedures, prescripts, instructions or practices of or applicable to the department as well as any related unauthorised, irregular or fruitless and wasteful expenditure incurred by the department or the government.
”Any improper or unlawful conduct by the officials or employees of the department or the service provider in question or any other person or entity, in relation to the allegations,” Ramaphosa stated.
The terms of reference for the SIU are to investigate any alleged serious maladministration in connection with the department’s affairs, improper or unlawful conduct by its employees or officials, unlawful appropriation or expenditure of public money or property.
This includes any unlawful, irregular or unapproved acquisitive act, transaction, measure or practice having a bearing upon state property, intentional or negligent loss of public money or damage to public property and offences referred to in the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act and which were committed in connection with the department’s affairs.
Also under scrutiny are unlawful or improper conduct by any person, which has caused or may cause serious harm to the public’s interests between January 2013 and the date of publication of Ramaphosa’s proclamation, which is dated January 24, 2025.
The SIU will also probe incidental or ancillary matters or those involving the same persons, entities or contracts investigated under authority of the proclamation as well as the recovery of any losses suffered by the department or the government.
On Wednesday, the SIU revealed before the National Assembly’s standing committee on public accounts that it has referred 25 officials for disciplinary action following the completion of its investigation authorised in 2020.
In the 2019 investigation into Microsoft licenses procured by the department, the SIU was mandated to investigate procurement of or contracting for software licenses, which occurred between February 2016 and July 2019.
”The SIU was also required to investigate any possible unlawful or improper conduct by the employees or officials of the department or applicable service providers or any other person or entity. The SIU investigated the procurement of Microsoft software licenses that were procured by the department in 2016, 2017 and 2018,” the unit stated.
In addition, the SIU explained that while the investigation has been completed it has referred two civil litigation matters (EOH and Software) to the Special Tribunal for the cancellation of the 2016, 2017 and 2018 contracts, with a combined value of nearly R468 million.
The application is opposed by EOH and the department and the matter is under case management and civil proceedings have been instituted, through the tribunal, for setting aside a contract valued at around R217m and recovering R33.4m.