How the Tembisa Hospital syndicates avoided detection to loot more than R2bn

THE Special Investigating Unit (STU) interim report has exposed how criminal syndicates bypassed standard tender processes to loot Tembisa Hospital of more than R2 billion.

- MANYANE MANYANE

The investigation, prompted by the murder of whistleblower Babita Deokaran, found that corrupt officials colluded with the service providers to exploit weaknesses in the procurement system.

Deokaran, who was an official at the Gauteng Department of Health, had uncovered massive corruption related to fraud, corruption and maladministration at the hospital and the syndicates had devised devious means to avoid regulatory triggers.

Deokaran was the first to identify suspicious payments to over 200 companies, totalling around R850 million at Tembisa Hospital. However, the amounts identified by the SIU investigation now exceed R2bn.

Deokaran was killed in August 2021, after exposing large-scale corruption and fraud. At least 15 current and former employees have been implicated in the scandal.

The SIU also identified that the syndicates kept the value of purchase orders below R500 000, which is the threshold for formal tenders. This enabled them to use a less-stringent three-quote system for procurement, which was easier to manipulate.

The investigation found that this was intentionally abused to circumvent the tender process and to keep the authorisation level as low as possible.