Fake firm landed R500 000 furniture contract
A FICTITIOUS Port Elizabeth company scored two furniture tenders worth almost R500 000 for the Queenstown education district. Documentation for the company, which failed to deliver most of the furniture, included a phone number no longer in use and a Schauderville address for its "warehouse”, which The Herald found was a residential property. The homeowner has denied any knowledge of the company.
And, three years after the controversial contract was awarded, some schools are still waiting for the desks and chairs to be delivered.
The original furniture contract was valued at R500 000 but was later chopped into two tranches of less than R250 000 each. This ensured a paltry compliance check and allowed officials to directly approach companies for quotes.
The Public Finance Management Act and a Treasury practice note stipulates tenders above R500 000 should be advertised in the government bulletin or media.
This means the tenders were awarded without being advertised and bypassed the competitive bidding process.
The Special Investigations Unit (SIU) probed the two contracts and linked district education director Nkosinathi Godlo to the graft. Godlo was suspended in January last year but reinstated by acting superintendent-general Mthuywa Ngonzo in June.
An internal department document claims the furniture was delivered to nine schools in Queenstown. The fictitious company was meant to supply 406 desks and 406 chairs.
Documents, which The Herald has seen, show Milnex 432 CC received R249 933 for the second lot and R249 509 for the first contract.
The company is also not registered at South Africa’s Companies and Intellectual Property Registration Office. Regardless, the document includes an address and telephone number of Milnex 432 CC.
But the Milnex "warehouse” is a residential property in Schauderville and the telephone number is no longer listed.
The owner, who asked not to be named, denied any knowledge of the company.
"We are not rich. You saw the house. I have no idea why they used my address.” Godlo signed off on the contracts. Contacted for comment, Godlo was adamant the furniture had been delivered to all the schools. "Whether Milnex is a house or warehouse I don’t know. I don’t want to talk about this to the media as I was investigated for it.”
He is still under investigation by the SIU. Education spokesman Loyiso Pulumani said the department did not discuss SIU investigations with the media.
Schools in the Eastern Cape are in desperate need of furniture, with nearly one million pupils without chairs and desks.
A visit by the education portfolio committee after the supposed delivery of school furniture found most of the schools still had no desks and chairs, including Howard Ben-Mazwi Junior Secondary School and Lavelilanga Senior Secondary School, both in the Queenstown district.
Committee chairman Mzoleli Mrara said nobody had been able to account for the money.
Xhumabhokwe Junior Secondary School principal Nomthandazo Nyamende complained of the poor quality of the furniture she did receive.
"We got 100 [desks and chairs] but they are already broken,” she said.
