East Cape virus spending tops R1bn

The Eastern Cape provincial government has spent more than a billion rand in the fight against the spread of Covid-19.

Most of the funding had been spent on the procurement of personal protective equipment (PPE) and for repairs, renovations and refurbishment of health facilities across the province, finance MEC Mlungisi Mvoko said in a statement on Monday.

By the end of July, the province had awarded 83 projects to a total value of R582,069,648.25.

A total of 79 contracts were awarded to Eastern Cape-based service providers at a combined value of R525,089,980.85.

In total, 611 service providers were appointed, mainly  for PPE-related procurement.

By July 22, all 14 provincial departments and public entities had procured Covid-19 related items to a total of value of R1,199,708,905.01.

The province had striven to apply the local economic development framework, resulting in 497 (73%) of the orders going to Eastern Cape-based suppliers, at a cost of R 875,419,146.29.

Mvoko said the department had disclosed the figures in line with finance minister Tito Mboweni’s call for provinces to publish the information to maintain accountability, transparency and ethical behaviour.

Five provincial departments had procured Covid-19-related goods and services to a total value of R 1,187,846,623, the statement said.

The figure constitutes 99% of the total value of orders placed by the provincial institutions.

The departments are health, with a bill R628,985,036, education (R545,420, 442) transport (R 5,907,275), social development (R3,878,865) and the Eastern Cape Rural Development Agency (R 3,655,006).

“As we publish all this information, we do this in the middle of an investigation by provincial treasury [into] all Covid-19 procurement in the province.

“Although it is still early to release information relating to the actual investigation, we can report that there are preliminary findings, but these are engaged with relevant institutions to ascertain certain governance matters, and once comprehensively responded to, we will then provide an updated report.

“Our plan is to start providing reports on the completed investigation starting by end of August 2020.

“Our investigation will, however, ensure that all transactions triggered by Covid-19 in the province will be reviewed for compliance with prescripts,” Mvoko said.

The top items procured included gowns (to the value of R197,323,727), digital body thermometers (R185,516,761), N95 masks (R141,100,703), sanitiser (R127,804,737), other masks (R108,229,971), disinfectants (R67,401,198), gloves,  surgical and examination — natural rubber latex (R93,802,530), mountable industrial soap sanitiser (R43,159,389), and hospital beds (R28,447,437).

— HeraldLIVE