386 People Referred For Prosecution For COVID Tender Fraud – SIU

The Special Investigation Unit on Tuesday afternoon said 386 people had been referred for prosecution following its widespread investigation into the theft and fraud since the state of disaster was declared.

The Presidency announced on Tuesday morning that the green light had been given to release the details of the report.

Forty-five matters have been enrolled for prosecution with a total value of more than R2.1 billion.

The report states that 224 officials have been referred for disciplinary action and three for executive action.

The SIU has been investigating 5,467 contracts under its mandate to look into the procurement of or contracting for goods, works and services during the national state of disaster.

The contracts under investigation were awarded to 3,066 service providers.

It said, as a percentage of the number of the contracts under investigation, 82% of these contracts has been finalised and 18% were currently ongoing.

The rand value of potential cash or assets to be recovered stands at more than R551 million.

The SIU report is wide-ranging, focusing on wrongdoing in a number of sectors including the Gauteng health department, service providers and trading partners.

The report covers tender irregularities, fraud and theft around the country.