The circumstances in which a government tender committee recommended awarding a R3,5-million contract to a company co-owned by the then head of the government department that put out the tender are now under investigation by the Scorpions.
The committee’s recommendations were made a few days before the departmental head left the government’s employ.
The story began in May last year when Mashao Lebea, at the time head of Mpumalanga’s Department of Public Works, joined up with Mtema Sibuyi, formerly chief director for roads in the department, to form an engineering company called Mtema Mashao Consulting Engineers.
The company was established to ”contribute positively to the development and maintenance of a better life for all South Africans”, according to its founders.
Lebea’s company was recommended for a contract worth R3,5-million with his own department while he was still in the employ of the department and while his company was not formally registered with the Registrar of Companies, according to official documents in the possession of the Mail & Guardian.
The documents form part of a probe by the elite crime-busting unit the Scorpions, which is investigating allegations of corruption against Mpumalanga government officials.
Lebea left the department at the end of May last year. His company was registered, according to records from the Registrar of Companies, on May 22 2002.
Records show that by early April 2002, before it was formally registered, the company was already vying for the contract to assist the public works department in the planning, design and supervision of the reconstruction of roads in the southern Highveld region.
On May 13 2002, the public works department’s tender committee recommended Lebea’s company to the provincial tender board as the preferred bidder for the contract.
In a letter to the tender board the committee wrote: ”The company [Lebea’s company] has just been started and they have an office here in Nelspruit. The directors of the company are experienced in road design and they are very much acquainted with the departmental standards for designing roads. This will expedite the design process as fewer technical meetings will be required.”
The letter did not declare the fact that one of the directors was Lebea, head of the department. The letter also did not indicate the fact that Lebea’s company was not formally registered at the time.
Instead the committee chose to withdraw the submission until all necessary documentation, including the registration proof for Mtema Mashao Consulting Engineers, was available.
This was despite the fact that the department at the time had other consultants capable ”of handling this type of work”. The existence of these consultants was acknowledged by the committee in its recommendation to the tender board.
On July 31 2002 the tender board approved the committee’s recommendation that Lebea’s company be appointed.
Lebea this week confirmed that his company was recommended for the tender while he was head of the department, but denied that his actions amounted to a conflict of interest.
He said the department of public works tender committee made its recommendations on the preferred bidder while he was on leave. ”Whoever was acting as head of the department at the time had all the powers to decide,” said Lebea.
Lebea said he was not worried about the Scorpions investigations.
”If they think they [Scorpions] have a case against me let them put it forward and we will meet in court,” he said.
Provincial Minister for Public Works Steve Mabona confirmed that the Scorpions are investigating the matter. He told the M&G his department has been aware of concerns about tender processes for some time.
The department was recently forced to reverse a decision by the tender committee to award another contract to Lebea’s company because of these concerns, Mabona said.
The contract was worth over R11-million. Although Mabona welcomed the Scorpions’s investigation into senior officials in his department he said he would not consider suspending them unless they were found guilty at the completion of the investigation.
”You are not doing any justice by suspending anyone who is still under investigation. The result of the investigation will allow us to take appropriate action against those who are found guilty,” said Mabona.
The M&G understands that the Scorpions have already questioned some members of the public works department tender committee about the deal.
Mabona also said the department was currently in the process of restructuring the tender committee. ”We have realised that the problem is to have the same officials in the committee for a longer period,” Mabona said.
The new revelations are the latest in a series of scandals to hit the public works department.
In May the M&G reported that an internal government report into the finances of the department had uncovered financial mismanagement, inefficiency and sheer incompetence.
The report exposed the provincial department for, among other things, irregularly awarding contracts worth millions of rands without proper tender procedures.
Mabona, who at the time dismissed the report as ”rubbish”, told the M&G his department has launched an internal investigation into the matter.
The provincial treasury has also since appointed a team of top auditors to probe the department. The provincial auditor general’s office has completed its investigation into the matter and its report will be presented to the provincial cabinet soon.